Meta’s statement on methods to combat sexual blackmail
Meta announced new security measures aimed at helping protect young people from sexual blackmail and raising awareness on this issue. With the new features offered, the company aims to support parents with tools that will help their children avoid such scams.
Here are some of the various security measures that Instagram has implemented:
Hiding follower and following lists: Accounts that are found to exhibit fraudulent behavior will no longer be able to view users’ follower and followed lists and will not be able to use this feature for blackmail. In addition, such accounts will not be able to view the list of accounts that liked users’ posts, the photos they were tagged in, or other accounts tagged in their photos.
Restricted messaging for teens: With Instagram Teen Accounts, anyone under the age of 18 that a teen doesn’t follow or isn’t connected to will be prevented from messaging them. Accounts showing suspicious activity will face restrictions when trying to follow teens. Accounts showing more serious symptoms will be blocked directly or follow requests will be sent to the teenager’s spam (unwanted messages) folder.
Prevent screenshots in messages: Instagram will prevent users from taking screenshots or screen recording temporary images or videos sent via DMs using the ‘view once’ or ‘allow replay’ features. Users will also be restricted from opening such images or videos on Instagram web to prevent them from bypassing this protection.
IMPROVED FRAUD DETECTION
Meta states that it is constantly improving its systems to better detect and remove accounts that engage in sexual blackmail and prevent them from returning. Experts at Meta observe commonalities and movements between profiles in scammers’ sexual blackmail attempts and train their technology to recognize these elements. Meta also shares common methods used by fraudsters with the Tech Coalition’s Lantern Program so that other companies can investigate suspicious behavior on their platforms.
PROTECTION OF IMAGES CONTAINING NUDITY
Instagram is rolling out a feature worldwide that will blur images detected to contain nudity in DMs. This feature, which is enabled by default for teens under 18, also educates users about the risks associated with sharing sensitive images. Meta has also collaborated with Larry Magid of ConnectSafely to produce an educational video for parents, which can be found on the Meta Family Center’s ‘Stop Sextortion’ page.
FIGHT AGAINST SEXUAL BLACKMAIL NETWORKS
Taking important steps against organized sexual blackmail networks, Meta recently announced the removal of more than 1,600 Facebook groups and accounts linked to criminal organizations such as Yahoo Boys, in addition to the 7,200 elements it removed in July.
These new measures from Meta come in addition to recent updates to Teen Accounts, which provide built-in protections that limit who can contact teens, the content they see and how much time they spend online. Young people under the age of 16 cannot change these settings without parental permission. As part of this initiative, Meta underlines its commitment to building its defenses to protect its community from such blackmail attempts, helping parents spot these scams, and working with industry partners to combat criminals across platforms.
What do you think?