Instagram Gains Bold New Powers to Combat Sextortion Scams

Just last month, Instagram rolled out teen accounts to automatically sign young users into a more protected social media experience. Now, in a much-needed move to safeguard teenagers against sextortion, Instagram is rolling out new privacy features.

In addition, Instagram is also partnering with NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) and Thorn to equip teenagers and parents with tools to recognize these malicious traps.

Currently, while Instagram allows you to send disappearing messages like photos and videos with the “View Once” functionality in DMs, it doesn’t stop the other person from screenshotting or screen recording it. Although you will be notified, it still doesn’t make sense for the ability to do so to exist. Snapchat’s disappearing messages work similarly.

However, that’s changing soon, as Instagram will soon prevent users from screenshotting ephemeral content in DMs. Instagram is securing the perimeter big time and will also prevent desktop users from viewing such messages on the web version, altogether. This will further help Instagram in setting up anti-sextortion protocols.

Additionally, Instagram is also rolling out Safety Notices in the app, letting teenagers know that when an account they are getting DMs from someone who “appears to be in a different country.” The safety notice also aware users of them having no mutual followers with such accounts.

Then, from the safety notice, teens can take certain actions like restricting, blocking, or reporting such accounts. Meta states that this feature is being tested out since “sextortion scammers often misrepresent where they live to trick teens into trusting them.”

That’s not the end of the anti-sextortion features as Instagram will restrict potentially “scammy” accounts from viewing the following and follower lists of users and stop blackmail or anything similarly malicious dead in its tracks. In addition, these potential sextorters “won’t be able to see lists of accounts that have liked someone’s posts, photos they’ve been tagged in, or other accounts that have been tagged in their photos.”

Announced back in April this year, Instagram is also solidifying its defenses against intimate image abuse by rolling out a Nudity Protection feature to users. This will automatically detect and blur out images that contain nudity sent over to accounts under 18. The feature is explained in detail in a dedicated Meta page that you can head over to.

In the US, Instagram is also partnering with Crisis Text Line to provide all its users with free and confidential 24/7 mental health support. As soon as a user reports nudity, threats, or anything remotely malicious, they’ll get the option to chat live with a “volunteer crisis counselor” right then and there.

Not too long ago, Instagram was under fire for not evolving anti-sextortion or similar defenses to protect young users. Well, it looks like Instagram really heard the plea and decided to take a stand. Additionally, Instagram is also partnering with popular teen and parent content creators to spread awareness about how to spot sextortion and go about it from there.

As per a 2022 survey by the Pew Research Center, 59% of teenagers between the ages of 13 to 17 use Instagram. Going by that, I doubt that number has dropped in 2024, and is possibly only increasing.

So, this is indeed a groundbreaking move by Meta, and I applaud them for rolling out all these anti-sextortion features for Instagram. Moreover, I’m also expecting similar measures on Facebook and WhatsApp, since these are alarming sextortion grounds as well.

With that said, I honestly feel that this should have been done years ago when social media apps started gaining their user base rapidly. Either, way, better late than never. What do you think about Instagram’s new anti-sextortion features and strategies? Are they enough? Drop your thoughts in the comments down below!