Instagram to introduce new tool to blur nude images in bid to fight sex scams aimed at teenagers

Instagram said scammers often use direct messages to ask for 'intimate images'. To counter this, it will soon start testing out a nudity-protection feature for direct messages.

Instagram says it is deploying new tools to protect young people and combat sexual extortion, including a feature that will automatically blur nudity in direct messages.

The social media platform said in a blog post on Thursday it was testing out the features as part of its campaign to fight sexual scams and other forms of “image abuse”, and to make it tougher for criminals to contact teens.

Sexual extortion, or sextortion, involves persuading a person to send explicit photos online and then threatening to make the images public unless the victim pays money or engages in sexual favours.

Instagram and other social media companies have faced growing criticism for not doing enough to protect young people. Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Instagram’s owner Meta Platforms, apologised to the parents of victims of such abuse during a US Senate hearing earlier this year.

Meta also owns Facebook and WhatsApp but the nudity blur feature will not be added to messages sent on those platforms.

Instagram said scammers often use direct messages to ask for “intimate images”. To counter this, it will soon start testing out a nudity-protection feature for direct messages that blurs any images with nudity “and encourages people to think twice before sending nude images”. 

“The 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,” Instagram said.

The feature will be turned on by default globally for teens under 18. Adult users will get a notification encouraging them to activate it.

Images with nudity will be blurred with a warning, giving users the option to view it. They’ll also get an option to block the sender and report the chat.

Meta has been urged to reverse the lowering of the minimum age to use WhatsApp.

For people sending direct messages with nudity, they will get a message reminding them to be cautious when sending “sensitive photos”. 

They will also be informed they can unsend the photos if they change their mind, but that there’s a chance others may have already seen them.

Meanwhile, Meta has been urged to reverse the lowering of the minimum age to use WhatsApp.

The change, which reduces the age limit from 16 to 13, came into force in the EU and Britain on Thursday.

The campaign group Smartphone Free Childhood said the move “flies in the face of the growing national demand for big tech to do more to protect our children”.

It said: “Officially allowing anyone over the age of 12 to use their platform sends a message that it’s safe for children. But teachers, parents and experts tell a very different story. 

"As a community we’re fed up with the tech giants putting their shareholder profits before protecting our children.”