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April 11 (UPI) -- Meta said Thursday it is testing new features designed to help protect young people on its Instagram platform from being coerced into providing explicit images of themselves and then coerced for money. To combat the practice, known as "sextortion," Meta said it will take a series of steps including introducing a new setting that will automatically blur nude images in Instagram DMs and will place it on by default for users younger than 18.
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"Financial sextortion is a horrific crime," Meta said in a statement. "We've spent years working closely with experts, including those experienced in fighting these crimes, to understand the tactics scammers use to find and extort victims online, so we can develop effective ways to help stop them. "
The nudity protection tool, Meta said, will automatically blur an image containing nudity under a warning screen that prevents users from being immediately confronted by a nude image and presents them with the choice of whether to view it or not.
Meta said it would also display a message encouraging the recipient not to feel pressured to respond and informing them that the message can be unsent if they change their mind while offering an option to block the sender and report the chat
People receiving or sending nude images will also be directed to safety tips explaining the potential risks including a warning that the recipient could screenshot or forward the images without their knowledge.
Anyone who attempts to forward a nude image will also be met with a message encouraging them to reconsider.
"Meta's proposed device-side safety measures within its encrypted environment is encouraging. We are hopeful these new measures will increase reporting by minors and curb the circulation of online child exploitation," John Shehan, senior vice president at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said in a statement.
Meta said it was also developing technology to identify accounts that may potentially be engaging in sextortion by directing any message requests suspected accounts send to the recipient's hidden requests folder.
The company noted it already restricts adults from starting chats with teens they're not connected to.
In January that policy was tightened, creating stricter messaging defaults for teens under 16 that prevents them from being contacted unless they are already connected to the sender regardless of the sender's age.
Meta said its expert teams work to investigate and disrupt people and networks that it finds are engaged in sextortion. Accounts are removed, some cases are reported to law enforcement and steps are taken to prevent sextortion actors from establishing new accounts.
In addition to these efforts, Meta said Thursday it would roll out a pop-up message for people who may have interacted with an account that was removed for sextortion, directing them to resources including support helplines.
The Justice Department issued a December 2022 public safety alert about the rise of sextortion schemes in the United States.
According to Homeland Security and FBI officials at that time there had been a tenfold increase in cases where teens were coerced into providing sexually explicit images and then extorted.
That alert said while girls are often targets, the increase in sextortion crimes has mostly involved teenage boys between 14 and 17.
In April two Nigerians were arrested over alleged sextortion of an Australian teen boy who died by suicide. The suicide happened under threat that intimate pictures of him would be sent to family and friends unless he paid an extortion fee.
