Meta has announced new initiatives aimed at combating sextortion scams targeting teens and young adults. These measures include an education campaign designed to help both teenagers and their parents recognize the signs of sextortion scams, as well as a suite of safety features intended to make it more difficult for scammers to operate on Meta's platforms.
The campaign involves collaboration with child safety experts, including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Thorn. An educational video has been developed to teach teens how to identify potential sextortion threats. John Shehan from NCMEC stated, "The dramatic rise in sextortion scams is taking a heavy toll on children and teens, with reports of online enticement increasing by over 300% from 2021 to 2023."
Kelbi Schnabel from Thorn emphasized the growing risk posed by sextortion, noting that initiatives like this are crucial in informing youth about these dangers.
Meta will disseminate the educational content through Instagram across several countries, including the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. Additionally, they have partnered with popular creators to raise awareness among both teens and parents.
New safety features being introduced include enhanced protections within Instagram Teen Accounts that limit contact from unknown individuals. There will also be stricter controls over accounts that display suspicious behavior. Other measures include restricting access to follower lists for suspected scam accounts and testing notifications when users are contacted by someone who may be located in another country.
Further technological advancements aim to prevent screenshots or screen recordings of ephemeral messages sent via Instagram Direct Messages (DMs) or Messenger. Meta is also rolling out a nudity protection feature globally for Instagram DMs that blurs detected nude images for users under 18.
In response to rising threats, Meta removed over 1,620 assets linked to groups known as Yahoo Boys involved in organizing sextortion activities. This follows previous actions where thousands of Facebook assets were eliminated due to similar activities.
Meta continues working on improving its detection techniques against scammers and collaborates with industry partners through initiatives like the Tech Coalition’s Lantern program.
