Protect your children from sexual exploitation on Instagram with these new safety features

Instagram has implemented new functions on its platform to reinforce the protection of children and adolescents from possible cases of Sexual exploitation or blackmail with sexual material,

One of the main measures adopted is to tighten the settings related to direct messages (DM) directed at minors. Now no user will be able to establish contact with them by limiting

Social networks have taken steps to protect the privacy of teenagers by restricting the visibility of their followers and followed lists.

This action is intended to reduce the chances that scammers or individuals with bad intentions can access the inner circle of minors, making any manipulation or extortion attempts difficult.

New Instagram features related to the protection of minors from alleged cases of sexual exploitation include:

One of the features implemented is that, when a profile shows signs of potentially fraudulent behavior, teens will receive an alert when they open a direct message (DM) warning them about the risks of interacting with that person. , which indicates that they can be dangerous. ,

Common scammers’ tactics include falsifying their location to gain the teens’ trust.

To combat this type of fraud, Instagram is testing security notices in both its DMs and Messenger. These alerts will alert teens when they are chatting with someone who may be in another country, helping to identify potential fraud.

Additionally, if someone insists on communicating with a minor and shows signs of fraudulent behavior, Instagram will take immediate action. The platform will block all interactions or send the messages to the teen’s spam folder.

• Limitations on profile visibility

The same accounts that Instagram identifies with suspicious behavior will not be able to see the followers and followings of minor accounts.

Instagram explains, “Sextortion scammers often use their victims’ follower lists to try to blackmail them.”

• protection from nudity

When someone sends a nude photo or video to a teen via Instagram Direct Message, the app will give advance notice and include a message about not feeling pressured to respond.

Meta Platform Social says, “This feature, which will be enabled by default for teens under 18, will blur images that show nudity when sent or received in Instagram Direct messages and people. will warn about the risks associated with sending sensitive images. network.

When users report sextortion or child safety-related issues, such as nudity, threats to release private images, sexual abuse or provocation, they will have the option to chat in real time with a volunteer Crisis Text Line counselor. This service is available only in the United States.

Soon, users will not be able to take a screenshot or record the screen of a video or photo once sent in a chat with a minor.

To prevent people from bypassing this screenshot prevention, “View once” or “Allow to play” images or videos will not be allowed to open on the Instagram website.

On Instagram, accounts for teens under 16 are subject to strict settings by default to protect their safety. Parental permission is required to make these settings less restrictive. This means that teens will have to activate the parental supervision function on the platform.

For teenagers over 16 years old, parents can also activate this supervision if they want to have more control over their children’s activities on social networks.