Instagram will prohibit people from taking screenshots or recording images and videos intended for one-time viewing as part of an “ongoing effort” to prevent sexual abuse on the platform.
Its parent company, Meta, announced on Thursday features aimed at protecting teens from being tricked into sending intimate images to scammers and being blackmailed through them.
Previously tested tools that blur nude images in messages, as well as hide lists of followers and subscribers from potential extortionist accounts, will also become permanent.
This comes on the heels of a warning from the UK communications watchdog Ofcom that social media companies will be fined if they fail to ensure children’s safety.
The NSPCC stated that these implementations are “a step in the right direction.”
But Richard Collard, deputy head of children’s online safety, said that “questions remain as to why Meta is not implementing similar protections across all of its products, including WhatsApp, where grooming and extortion also occur on a large scale.”
Law enforcement agencies around the world have reported an increase in the number of extortion scams taking place on social media platforms, with teenage boys often falling victim to such scams.
The British organization Internet Watch Foundation said in March that 91% of the reports of extortion it received in 2023 concerned boys.
The new tools will include preventing the ability to take screenshots of images and videos sent in Instagram messages through the “view once” or “allow playback” mechanisms – which can be selected by users when sending an image or video in direct messages. This will also apply to the web version of Instagram.
Antigone Davis, head of global security at Meta, said the new Instagram campaign aims to provide children and parents with information on how to spot attempted sexual abuse if attackers evade detection tools.
“We’ve implemented built-in protections so that parents don’t have to do anything to protect their teens,” she told BBC News.
“However, it’s the kind of adversarial crime where whatever protections we put in place, these fraudulent extortionists will try to get around them.”
What is sextortion?
Sextortion, where scammers trick people into sending sexually explicit material and then blackmail them, has become the dominant form of intimate image abuse occurring online.
The shame, stress, and isolation experienced by victims of sex-related crimes, who are often harassed and told that their images will be published unless they pay the blackmailers, leads some to commit suicide.
Ros Dowie, the mother of 16-year-old Murray Dowie, who committed suicide in 2023 after being targeted by an Instagram sexting gang, previously told the BBC that Meta does “almost nothing to keep our kids safe and secure when they use their platforms.”
“Built-in protection”
Meta said that its new safety features and campaign are based on tools already available to teens and parents on the platform.
It will also hide follower and subscriber lists from potential accounts that could be victims of sexual harassment.
Sexual assault expert Paul Ruffill told the BBC in May that sexters try to find teenage accounts in subscriber and follower lists by searching high schools and youth sports teams on the platforms.
Meta is currently moving teens under the age of 18 to teen Instagram accounts with stricter settings turned on by default, which younger teens can only turn off under parental supervision.
But some parents and experts say that security controls for teen accounts put the onus on them to identify and report potential threats.
Dame Melanie Dawes, chief executive of regulator Ofcom, told the BBC in an interview that it is companies, not parents or children, who are responsible for keeping people safe online ahead of the implementation of the SAFE Online Act next year.
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