“Sextortion is a horrific crime, where financially-driven scammers target young adults and teens around the world, threatening to expose their intimate imagery if they don’t get what they want,” read a statement from Meta obtained by First for Women . “Today, we’re announcing new measures in our fight against these criminals—including an education campaign to raise awareness among teens and parents about how to spot sextortion scams and what to do to take back control if they’re targeted by one of these scams. We’re also announcing significant new safety features to further help prevent sextortion on our apps.”
The campaign’s rollout will block certain users from screenshotting certain pictures sent in a direct message (DM), hiding users’ follower and following counts from people’s accounts Meta thinks are sextortion scams, revealing what country the person you are chatting with is from and initiating a nudity protection setting on any pictures that the company thinks are too revealing.
As of now, all of this only applies to people 18 and under .
On September 17, Meta unveiled Instagram Teen Accounts, a new version of the popular social media platform designed to improve teen safety and ease parental concerns. With stricter privacy settings and parental controls, Instagram Teen aims to protect users aged 13 to 17. Directly after the announcement, First for Women got the chance to attend […]
How did Meta create the restrictions to help fight sextortion scams?
Meta
Meta teamed up with both the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and a nonprofit organization called Thorn, whose sole purpose is to help children learn how to defend themselves when it comes to sexual abuse.
“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,” John Shehan, a senior vice president from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said in the press release. “Campaigns like this bring much-needed education to help families recognize these threats early.”
Meta
Kelbi Schnabel, a senior manager at Thron, echoed similar thoughts by saying, “Our research at Thorn has shown that sextortion is on the rise and poses an increasing risk to youth. 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.”
Meta also plans to show all teen users a video outlining these new guidelines. The video will also highlight NCMEC’s Take It Down tool , which helps prevent teens from sharing explicit images. Meta will also share a link to a 24/7 Crisis Text Line with the teens should they need or want to talk to someone about the content they see online.
Shehan says, “ By equipping young people with knowledge and directing them to resources like NCMEC’s CyberTipline and Take it Down, we can better protect them from falling victim to online exploitation.”
Meta
What are sextortion scams?
Sextortion scams are when internet scammers coerce people into sending explicit messages or images and then using that material to blackmail them.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Sextortion scams “start when young people believe they are communicating with someone their own age who is interested in a relationship or with someone who is offering something of value .”
After that, the FBI says that the criminals “ threaten to publish that content, or they threaten violence, to get the victim to produce more images.”
Robert Way/Getty
There are also financial sextortion scams, which the FBI defines as “ the offender receives sexually explicit material from the child and then threatens to release the compromising material unless the victim sends money and/or gift cards.”
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