Amid the rise of sextortion in the past year targeted at young users, Instagram has taken a preventive measure to ensure online safety.
As reported by Mashable on Thursday, the Meta platform has launched a major campaign against the bad actors who blackmail youngsters online for illegal monetary benefits.
Sextortion, which mostly takes place online is a crime in which the blackmailer pressurizes a teen they’ve just befriended into sending their explicit images and video.
The extortioner then uses those private images and videos to demand hefty money to ensure they won’t leak that material online.
This heinous crime has been linked to the international groups, systematically organizing this crime on a large scale.
The initiative taken by Instagram aims to make it more difficult for the criminals to commits sextortion using this platform, while also educating teens and parents about the problem.
The initiative draws on insights from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, along with Thorn, a nonprofit dedicated to developing technology to protect children from sexual exploitation.
New features include detecting and blocking suspicious accounts, displaying targeted safety alerts, and enhancing security for temporary images or videos shared via private messages.
Additionally, victims reporting sextortion or child safety concerns will have the option to connect with Crisis Text Line, which provides free crisis counseling services.
Kelbi Schnabel, senior manager at Thorn applauded Instagram's campaign against sextortion, noting, "It's a devastating threat – and joint initiatives like this that aim to inform kids about the risks and empower them to take action are crucial.”
