Instagram is introducing a series of new safety features to protect users from sextortion scammers, the company announced Thursday. Most notably, the company will no longer allow screenshots or screen recordings of temporary images or videos sent in private messages.
Previously, it was possible to take a screenshot of temporary content in an Instagram DM (direct message), but the other person would be notified that you had saved it. With this change, if you send a photo or video in a DM using the “See Once” or “Allow to Play” features, the other person will no longer be able to save the content. Additionally, Instagram doesn't allow you to open “View once” or “Allow to play” images or videos on your desktop to avoid circumventing security measures.
Instagram goes a step further than Snapchat in ensuring that ephemeral content is preserved by not allowing users to take screenshots of ephemeral content. Snapchat allows you to send an image to someone and allow them to take a screenshot of the image. Snapchat will notify users that the image has been saved, but the app won't prevent users from taking screenshots of temporary content in the first place.
Instagram, on the other hand, is currently making sure that content that is supposed to be seen once actually only gets viewed once.
Image credit: Instagram
The Meta-owned social network says the new features announced today complement its recently released Teen Accounts, which gives younger users an in-app experience with built-in protections that limit who they can contact. automatically registered.
On teen accounts, young users can't receive messages from people they don't follow or connect with, but they can receive follow requests from anyone. Instagram is now making it harder for suspicious accounts, including recently created accounts, to request to follow teens.
Depending on how fraudulent the account is, Instagram will either block the follow request completely or send it to the teen's spam folder.
Image credit: Instagram
The app also deploys safety notifications in DMs to let teens know they're talking to someone who may live in another country. The company says it does this because sextortion scammers often lie about where they live to get teens to trust them.
Sextortion scammers often use the following of teens to blackmail them, so Instagram will no longer allow accounts depicting fraudulent activity to see people's following or follower lists. I plan to. These accounts also don't allow you to see who has liked someone's posts or see which photos they're tagged in.
Additionally, Instagram is rolling out its Nudity Protection feature globally after first testing it in April. As a safety measure, images containing nudity in DMs are automatically blurred. This feature is enabled by default for teenage users. Instagram will warn photo senders about the risks associated with sending private photos.
Image credit: Instagram
To provide more support within the app, Instagram has partnered with Crisis Text Line in the US. Currently, when users report issues related to child safety or sextortion, they are given the option to speak to a crisis counselor.
The changes come 10 months after Instagram, along with other major social networks, was criticized by lawmakers for not doing enough to protect young users on its platform.
As part of its efforts to combat sextortion, Instagram will begin showing educational videos about sextortion scammers to teens in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. The social network has also partnered with influencers like Vera Porch and Brent Rivera to create content about spotting sextortion and what to do if it happens.