Social networks struggle to control sexual extortion of minors
The most common attacks of so-called sextortion, or sexual extortion, have been detected on the social network Instagram. However, all platforms are vulnerable to this illegal act, so effective measures are urgently needed to protect younger users
Extortion through the illicit obtaining of intimate content, whether in photos or videos, from a person has been called sextortion. Although it can happen to anyone, criminals preferentially attack minors and, particularly, on social networks.
Instagram is the main platform for sextortion attacks. The social network has worked on increasingly severe measures to prevent perpetrators from seizing, through deception, photos or videos of children and adolescents with intimate content.
Parent company Meta is aware that criminals are always looking for money and harming human dignity. In this sense, they have made decisions aimed at protecting underage users.
Currently, Meta and Instagram are implementing functions to make it more difficult to access the profiles of minors in conversations. This, together with the restrictions on content shared by teenagers, can help prevent photos and videos from being intercepted by sexual predators.
Instagram, on the other hand, has shown its commitment to prevent sextortion by providing more information about suspicious accounts that seek to follow teenage users.
The platform will analyze the creation date of suspicious accounts with the aim of blocking them or classifying them as spam from vulnerable teenagers. And in the event that the minor initiates an interaction with a suspicious account, Instagram will show information such as geographic location (if they are in another country).
Regarding sensitive content in photos and videos, the social network applies restrictions. Thus, it will no longer be possible to take screenshots or screen recordings when opening ephemeral photos or videos. Globally, a restriction will be implemented on nudes shared via direct messages. Photos or videos will appear distorted or blurred. They can only be opened manually.
M.Pino
Source: elporvenir
(Reference image source: Julian Christ in Unsplash)
Visit our news channel on Google News and follow us to get accurate, interesting information and stay up to date with everything. You can also see our daily content on Twitter and Instagram
