The social network Instagram is taking extra measures to protect minors against extortion with nude photos, also called sextorsion. For example, nude photos in ‘direct messages’ will initially be blurred, Instagram has announced on its blog.
Nudity protection will be automatically enabled on minors’ accounts. Adults will receive a message to turn on protection. Anyone who wants to send photos with nudity will receive a message to be careful with such images. Recipients receive a blurred photo. “This means that the recipient is not immediately confronted with the nude photo and can choose whether he or she wants to see it or not,” it said.
Accounts that may be involved in sextortion will be subject to restrictions that will limit their ability to contact underage Instagram users. For example, they will not be able to send ‘direct messages’ to minors.
The new measures will be tested from May in a series of countries in Central and Latin America. Afterwards they will be rolled out worldwide.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram, is accused in the United States and France of not paying enough attention to the mental health of teenagers. In January it announced a first series of measures to better protect young users, for example with explicit parental consent to make an account public.
The European Commission is conducting investigations into Meta, Snap (Snapchat), TikTok and YouTube and the measures they take to protect the “physical and mental health” of minors.