Meta Tests Instagram Features to Protect Teens

Published by Shipra Sanganeria on Apr 18, 2024

Fact-checked by Kate Richards • Fact-checked by Kate Richards

Meta is testing new features on its Instagram platform to protect teens from potential sexual scams. The social media giant, in a blog post on April 11, announced the new tools, including a feature that auto-blurs nudity in Instagram messages.

“This feature is designed not only to protect people from seeing unwanted nudity in their DMs, but also to protect them from scammers who may send nude images to trick people into sending their own images in return,” Meta said.

Meta stated that the nudity protection feature would utilize on-device machine learning and operate within end-to-end encrypted chats to ascertain whether an image contains nudity. Moreover, through warnings, it will also give users an option whether or not to view the image, block the sender, or report the chat.

The feature will be turned on by default for children under 18 globally, and adult users will receive notifications encouraging them to turn it on.

Meta also said that it is developing new technology based on specific signals aimed at identifying accounts that might be involved in potential sextortion scams. In recent months, the company has implemented many measures to protect young people, including restricting DMs from adults with whom they are not connected.

In line with these, Meta is testing new tools, like removing the “Message” button on a teen’s profile, so any potentially dangerous account can’t communicate with them, even if the two accounts are already connected. These and other precautionary tools are to stop potential scammers and criminals from finding and interacting with young people.

In addition to announcing safe and age-appropriate content policies for teens, Meta said that it will also increase data-sharing with the cross-platform online child safety program, Lantern.

Lately, major tech firms such as Meta have been under scrutiny by regulators in the US and Europe concerning the lack of protective measures to shield children and young individuals from illegal and harmful content.