Instagram, owned by Meta, is testing out new tools to protect young people and combat sexual extortion, including a feature that automatically blurs nudity in direct messages. The aim is to make it tougher for criminals to contact teens and fight against the increasing issue of sextortion among teenagers and children.
File - The Instagram logo is seen on a cell phone in Boston, USA, Oct. 14, 2022. Instagram says it's testing out new tools to protect young people and combat sexual extortion , including a feature that will automatically blur nudity in direct messages .
The social media platform said in a blog post on Thursday, April 11, 2024 that the new features are part of its work to fight sexual scams and other forms of "image abuse" and to make it tougher for criminals to contact teens. One of the world's largest tech companies is adding new features to fight against sextortion and abuse involving sexually explicit images, particularly among young people."This is something that's increasing greatly among teenagers and children," Celene Beth Olsen, a parent and survivor of sexual abuse, said.According to Meta, which owns Instagram, scammers often use direct messages to solicit intimate images from users. In response, the company has introduced a nudity protection feature that blurs these images to encourage users to think twice before sending or viewing them. "Children are being targeted for that particular reason, because they see this as a peer but come to find out it's actually a predator," Olsen said. Olsen, who is also a true crime documentary maker, is concerned about the lack of awareness among teens about the dangers of sharing personal photos."They have submitted photos and they have done these things; they really don't know where it's going to end up and obviously, it's in the hands of these predators," she said.Also, anyone attempting to forward a nude image will receive a prompt encouraging them to reconsider.Pete Ashdown, founder of XMission, believes this is a step in the right direction, but questions whether blurring images is enough. "I'm surprised they still send it through blurred instead of having some sort of notification system for parents. That would be really useful," Ashdown said.
Instagram Meta Social Media Sextortion Sexual Extortion Abuse Young People Teenagers Children Direct Messages Nudity Feature Criminals
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