Newsletter
Meta will blur Instagram DMs (Direct Messages) that contain nudity. Additionally, the company will also warn teenagers about the ever-increasing danger of sextortion scams.
Meta rolls out nudity warnings and blurs DMs to protect teens
Instagram is getting a direly needed feature to protect teens from scams, exploitation, and abuse. Meta has announced that it will blur messages that have nude images.
Moreover, to protect minors on the platform from abuse and sexually exploitative scams, Meta will warn users about the dangers of exchanging sexually explicit images.
Instagram introduces new feature that will automatically detect and blur images that contain nudity sent to teenagers via DMs. pic.twitter.com/gLlpJkvsIE
— Pop Base (@PopBase) April 11, 2024
Meta is rolling out the two features globally. Users who are under 18 will have the security option turned on by default. It is not clear if Instagram will allow users who are below 18 years of age to turn the feature and warnings off. Meta will send out notifications encouraging adults to enable the prompts.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Meta has started automatically detecting nude photos in DMs. These features are aimed at protecting teens and adults from the growing menace of sextortion (sexual extortion), Meta claimed.
How will Meta recognize and blur nude images, and warn users?
Meta claims it is using “on-device machine learning” to analyze whether an image sent via Instagram’s direct messaging service contains nudity. In other words, all the processing and detection will take place on the device.
Meta has reportedly assured it won’t have access to these images. However, users can always report these images to the company.
New:
* Nudity protection feature in Instagram DMs
* Signals to detect potential sextorters & prevent teen account interaction
* Pop-up warnings for people engaging with suspected sextorters
* More industry signal sharing about sextortion via Lanternhttps://t.co/NcQCSQlGBs— Andy Stone (@andymstone) April 11, 2024
With the setting and warnings enabled, Meta will present Instagram users, who receive nude photographs, a message telling them not to feel pressured to respond. In an announcement about the feature, Meta noted,
“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.”
Instagram will also proactively try to prevent users who try to send a DM with a nude image. The notification will warn them about the dangers of sharing sensitive photos. Additionally, users who attempt to forward a nude image they’ve received will also receive a warning.