Instagram is taking significant steps to protect its young users from sextortion by discontinuing the ability to screenshot or screen-record images and videos intended for one-time viewing. This move was announced by parent company Meta on Thursday as part of its ongoing efforts to prevent intimate image exploitation on the platform.
The new features aim to safeguard teenagers from being coerced into sending explicit content to scammers who may later blackmail them. Alongside this new policy, tools that previously blurred nude images in messages and concealed follower and following lists of users from potential sextortion accounts will now be permanently integrated into the platform.
This initiative comes in response to a warning from the UK’s communications regulator, Ofcom, which stated that social media companies could face hefty fines if they fail to ensure child safety. The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) welcomed Instagram’s actions, calling them “a step in the right direction.” However, Richard Collard, the associate head of child safety online policy at NSPCC, questioned why Meta has not extended similar protections to its other products, particularly WhatsApp, where grooming and sextortion incidents also occur frequently.
Reports from law enforcement agencies around the world indicate a rising trend in sextortion scams, which disproportionately target teenage boys. According to the UK’s Internet Watch Foundation, 91% of sextortion reports it received in 2023 involved male victims.
The new tools on Instagram will prevent users from taking screenshots of images and videos sent via the platform’s “view once” and “allow replay” features in Direct Messages. This restriction will also apply to the web version of Instagram. Antigone Davis, Meta’s head of global safety, emphasized that a new campaign will provide information to children and parents on recognizing sextortion attempts, as some perpetrators may find ways to evade the detection tools.
“Sextortion is an adversarial crime, and while we’ve implemented built-in protections, we know that scammers will attempt to circumvent them,” Davis told BBC News.
Sextortion is characterized by scammers deceiving individuals into sharing explicit content, followed by blackmail threats to release those images publicly. The psychological toll on victims can be devastating, leading to feelings of shame and isolation, and in tragic cases, prompting some to take their own lives. The mother of 16-year-old Murray Dowey, who died by suicide in 2023 after being targeted on Instagram, has criticized Meta for not doing enough to safeguard children using their platforms.
To bolster safety, Meta’s new features will further enhance existing tools available to teens and parents, including obscuring follower and following lists from potential sextortion accounts. Experts note that sextortionists often seek out young users through these lists.
Currently, Meta is transitioning users under 18 into Teen Account experiences, which come with stricter privacy settings enabled by default. However, some parents and experts have expressed concerns that shifting the responsibility of monitoring online safety onto children and parents is insufficient. Dame Melanie Dawes, Ofcom’s chief executive, underscored that the responsibility for ensuring safety online rests primarily with the companies, rather than parents or children, as the implementation of the Online Safety Act approaches next year.
