Meta has announced new measures to combat the rising threat of sextortion scams, the fastest-growing cybercrime impacting thousands of Facebook and Instagram users. Sextortion cases have surged by 300% over the past three years, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
To address this, the company is enhancing its detection measures, including adding new elements to connection requests for teen users on Instagram. These will now display information such as the account’s age, its location, and whether there are mutual followers. This is aimed at helping teens make informed decisions about who they connect with, reducing their risk of falling victim to sextortion scammers.
The company is also introducing new restrictions on who can view followers and following lists. According to the company, “Sextortion scammers often use the following and follower lists of their targets to try and blackmail them. Now, accounts we detect as showing signals of scammy behaviour won’t be able to see people’s followers or following lists, removing their ability to exploit this feature.” This move is expected to limit scammers’ ability to use these lists for blackmail purposes.
Additionally, the company is implementing restrictions on screenshotting and screen recording for ephemeral images and videos. It is also expanding its blur feature, which automatically blurs detected nude images in Instagram direct messages for users under 18. “This feature, which will be enabled by default for teens under 18, will blur images that we detect contain nudity when sent or received in Instagram DMs and will warn people of the risks associated with sending sensitive images,” the company explained.
The company is expanding its educational efforts through partnerships with NCMEC and Thorn, offering resources to help teens identify sextortion scams. A new video developed by Meta and Thorn will guide teens on how to recognise potential scammers. The video will direct teens to instagram.com/preventsextortion, which offers tips and tools such as NCMEC’s ‘Take It Down’ tool, designed to prevent intimate images from being shared online and live chat support via Crisis Text Line in the US.
The company plans to highlight this video to millions of teens and young adults across the US, UK, Canada, and Australia, regions where sextortion scams are prevalent. Earlier this year, the company partnered with NCMEC on the ‘Take It Down’ initiative and also worked with Thorn on a guide to help teens avoid sextortion scams.
The company has taken significant action to address these scams, removing around 70,000 profiles, pages, and groups tied to a sextortion group in Nigeria in July. Last week, Meta removed 800 Facebook groups and 820 accounts linked to the ‘Yahoo Boys,’ a well-known sextortion group.
These new security measures and educational resources are expected to have a meaningful impact on limiting sextortion scams, as Meta continues its efforts to protect vulnerable users from cybercrime.
