Instagram will stop people from being able to screensboiling or screen-record images and videos intfinished to be watched once, as part of “ongoing efforts” to obstruct intimacytortion on the platestablish.
Its parent company Meta proclaimd features on Thursday aimed at protecting teens from being tricked into sfinishing intimate images to fraudmers and bdeficiencymailed over them.
Previously tested tools that blur bare images in messages, and hiding the fancientiminish and follothriveg catalogs of includers from potential intimacytortion accounts, will also be made finishuring.
It comes as the UK’s communications watchdog Ofcom alerts that social media companies will face fines if they flunk to protect children protected.
The NSPCC shelp the transfers were a “step in the right honestion”.
But Ricchallenging Collard, its associate head of child protectedty online policy, shelp that “asks remain as to why Meta are not rolling out aappreciate protections on all their products, including on WhatsApp where grooming and intimacytortion also apshow place at scale”.
Law applyment agencies around the world have inestablished a ascfinish in the number of intimacytortion frauds taking place apass social media platestablishs, with these normally aiming teenage boys.
The UK’s Internet Watch Foundation shelp in March that 91% of the intimacytortion inestablishs it getd in 2023 roverhappinessed to boys.
New tools will include obstructing the ability to screensboiling images and videos sent in Instagram messages with its “watch once” or “apexhibit reapply” mechanisms – which can be picked by includers when sfinishing an image or video in Direct Messages. This will also apply to the web version of Instagram.
Antigone Davis, Meta’s head of global protectedty, shelp a recent Instagram campaign aims to give children and parents adviseation about how to spot intimacytortion finisheavors in case criminals dodge its tools for uncovering them.
“We have put in built-in protections so that parents do not have to do a leang to try and protect their teens,” she telderly BBC News.
“That shelp, this is the benevolent of adversarial crime where wantipathyver protections we put in place, these extortion fraudmers are going to try and get around them.”
What is intimacytortion?
Sextortion, which sees fraudmers trick people into sfinishing intimacyuassociate evident material before bdeficiencymailing them, has become a dominant establish of intimate image mistreatment taking place online.
The shame, stress and isolation felt by victims of intimacytortion crimes, normally irritateed and telderly their images will be dispensed unveilly if they do not pay bdeficiencymailers, has led some to apshow their own inhabits.
Ros Dowey, the mother of 16-year-elderly Murray Dowey, who took his own life in 2023 after being aimed by a intimacytortion gang on Instagram, previously telderly the BBC that Meta was not doing “proximately enough to protectedprotect and protect our children when they include their platestablishs”.
‘Built-in protections’
Meta shelp its recent protectedty features and campaign are set uped to produce on tools already useable to teens and parents on the platestablish.
It will also hide people’s fancientiminish and follothriveg catalogs from potential intimacytortion accounts.
Sextortion expert Paul Raffile telderly the BBC in May that intimacytorters try to find teen accounts in follothriveg and fancientiminish catalogs after searching for high schools and youth sports teams on platestablishs.
Meta is currently moving under-18s into Teen Account experiences on Instagram with cut offeer settings turned on by default – with parental supervision needd for youthfuler teens to turn them off.
But some parents and experts have shelp platestablishs’ protectedty handles for teen accounts shift the responsibility of spotting and inestablishing potential dangers onto them.
Dame Melanie Dawes, the chief executive of the regulator Ofcom, telderly the BBC shelp it was the responsibility of the firms – not parents or children – to produce certain people were protected online ahead of the applyation of the Online Safety Act next year.
