Instagram is introducing new safety features to protect teens from sextortion scams.
The most important thing is that the company will now prevent users from taking screenshots and screen recording temporary images or videos sent in private messages. Until now, this feature was available in Instagram DMs , but the other person was notified of your move. With this change, if a user sends someone a photo or video via DM using the “ view once ” or “ allow replay ” features, the other person will not be able to save the content. Additionally, Instagram will not allow users to open “view once” or “allow replay” images or videos on desktop, so that security measures cannot be bypassed .
See also: Instagram: Brings “Teen Accounts” for underage users
With the new changes, Instagram is ensuring that content that is meant to be seen once, will actually be seen once.
The new security features were announced following the recent launch of Teen Accounts on Instagram, which are aimed at teenagers and have built-in protections that limit who can contact them.
With Teen Accounts, young users can't receive messages from users they don't follow, but they can still receive follow requests from anyone. Additionally, Instagram makes it harder for suspicious accounts (e.g., those recently created) to ask to follow teens.
Depending on how fake an account appears, Instagram decides whether to block the follow request completely or send it to the spam teen's
The social networking app is also rolling out safety alerts in DMs to let teens know when they're talking to someone who may live in a different country.
See also: Meta removes 63,000 Instagram accounts due to 'sextortion'
Another security feature relates to following and follower lists . Those behind sextortion scamsoften use teens’ following and follower lists to try to blackmail them. Instagram is going to block suspicious accounts from seeing these lists. These accounts also won’t be able to see who liked someone’s post or what photos they’ve been tagged in.
Additionally, Instagram is rolling out a nudity protection. The safety measure automatically blurs images containing nudity in DMs. The feature will be enabled by default for teen users. As for the people who send them, Instagram will warn them about the risks of sending such photos.
As part of efforts to combat sextortion, Instagram is set to begin showing teens in the US, UK, Australia and Canada an educational video about sextortion scammers.
See also: Instagram: The 8 most common scams and ways to protect yourself
Instagram’s new safety features come amid growing concerns about the impact of social media on the mental health, well-being and safety of young people. As teens spend more time online, cyberbullying ,body image issues and other mental health issues have increased. By implementing these new protections for underage users, Instagram is taking a proactive approach to addressing these concerns.
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Source: techcrunch.com
