Meta unveils new protections aimed at helping prevent sextortion for teen Instagram accounts

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) — There has been a lot of pressure from parents this year to protect children on social media and now META is unveiling some new safety features on Instagram to prevent sextortion.

According to the FBI, since the pandemic we’ve seen an increase in financial sextortion scams, where online predators force victims to share intimate photos or videos and then demand money to keep those images private.

In 2023, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s cyber tip line received 26,718 reports of sextortion. That number has increased compared to the 10,731 reports the year before.

Action News spoke with Meta’s head of child safety policy Ravi Sinha about these new in-app protections for teens and young adults.

“We know that these sextortion scammers are using friends and followers lists as a means to threaten teens and young adults, basically saying I’m going to share these images with friends and followers, so we don’t make those lists available,” Sinha said .

Meta will also notify the teen if they are chatting with someone from another country, as they say scammers will pose as an out-of-town student to ingratiate themselves with potential targets.

There is also no need to screenshot private photos in DMs anymore. If a teen sends a photo to someone that they only want to view once, the person receiving the photo will no longer be able to take a screenshot of the image.

Meta says parents should get involved and talk to their children about these scams. They encourage parents to make sure their children feel comfortable sharing everything that’s going on in their lives.