Instagram has launched a new campaign, informed by NCMEC and Thorn, to help teens spot sextortion scams and assist parents in supporting their teens to avoid these scams. The campaign involves partnering with creators to raise awareness and ensure teens know sextortion is never their fault. New measures include hiding follower and following lists from potential scammers, preventing screenshots of certain images in DMs, and rolling out a nudity protection feature globally.
New Campaign to Help Teens and Parents Spot Sextortion Scams
Instagram is working with child safety experts, including NCMEC and Thorn, to develop an educational video that helps teens recognize sextortion scams. The video highlights red flags such as coming on too strong, asking to trade photos, or suggesting moving the conversation to a different app. The campaign aims to educate families and direct them to resources like NCMEC’s CyberTipline and Take It Down tool.
John Shehan from NCMEC emphasizes the importance of education in recognizing these threats early. The video reassures teens that sextortion is never their fault and provides tips and resources for taking back control. It will be shown to millions of teens and young adults in the US, UK, Canada, and Australia.
Kelbi Schnabel from Thorn highlights the increasing risk of sextortion and the importance of joint initiatives to inform and empower youth. Creators will share educational content with their followers, and parent creators will help parents understand sextortion and recognize its signs.
New Safety Features to Disrupt Sextortion
Meta is introducing new safety features to protect people from sextortion, complementing the recent Teen Accounts announcement. These features include:
- Stricter Message Settings: Teens under 18 are defaulted into stricter message settings, preventing messages from anyone they don’t follow.
- Blocking Scammy Follow Requests: Accounts showing signals of potentially scammy behavior will have their follow requests blocked or sent to spam.
- Safety Notices: New safety notices in Instagram DM and Messenger will alert teens when chatting with someone in a different country.
- Hiding Follower Lists: Accounts showing scammy behavior won’t be able to see follower or following lists, or lists of accounts that have liked posts or been tagged in photos.
- Screenshot Prevention: Preventing screenshots or screen recordings of ephemeral images or videos sent in private messages.
- Nudity Protection: Blurring images containing nudity in Instagram DMs and warning users of the risks associated with sending sensitive images.
Providing More Support In-App
Instagram is partnering with Crisis Text Line in the US to provide free, 24/7, confidential mental health support. When reporting issues related to sextortion or child safety, users will have the option to chat live with a volunteer crisis counselor.
Taking Action Against Sextortion Criminals
Instagram has removed over 1,620 assets affiliated with Yahoo Boys, who were attempting to organize, recruit, and train new sextortion scammers. This follows the removal of around 7,200 Facebook assets in July. Meta is improving techniques to identify scammers, remove their accounts, and prevent them from returning. They are also sharing patterns with the Tech Coalition’s Lantern program to help other companies investigate similar behaviors on their platforms.
