Meta Unveils New Features to Combat Sextortion Scams on Instagram and Facebook

Meta is stepping up its game to combat sextortion scams, which have unfortunately become one of the fastest-growing cybercrimes, affecting thousands of Facebook and Instagram users. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reports a shocking 300% rise in sextortion cases over the past three years, making this issue more urgent than ever. Meta launches sextortion prevention tools

To help fight this, Meta is enhancing its detection tools to identify potential sextortion accounts. For example, Instagram will now show extra details on connection requests sent to teens—like how long an account has been active, if it’s from another country, and if there are no mutual followers. These little clues will help teens make smarter decisions about who they connect with, which can stop scammers in their tracks.

Meta’s also adding new privacy controls to limit who can see your follower list. Since scammers often use follower lists to track down and blackmail their victims, accounts that look suspicious won’t be able to view those lists anymore. This should help prevent them from using that information against people.

On top of that, Meta is introducing restrictions on taking screenshots or screen recordings of temporary images or videos. Plus, they’re expanding a feature that automatically blurs nude images. For users under 18, this blur feature will be turned on by default. So, if a nude image is detected in Instagram DMs, it’ll automatically be blurred with a warning about the risks of sending sensitive images online.

Meta is also boosting its educational efforts by partnering with organizations like NCMEC and Thorn. They’re creating new resources to help teens spot the warning signs of sextortion scams. A key part of this is a new video that breaks down how these scams work and what to look out for. The video directs users to instagram.com/preventsextortion, which offers tips for teens dealing with sextortion, links to NCMEC’s Take It Down tool (which helps stop the spread of intimate images online), and live chat support from Crisis Text Line in the US.

Meta will promote this video to millions of teens and young adults in countries that are often targeted by sextortion scammers, like the US, UK, Canada, and Australia. This builds on their earlier work with NCMEC on the “Take It Down” initiative and their partnership with Thorn on a guide to help teens avoid falling victim to sextortion.

With sextortion on the rise, it’s clear why Meta is taking action. Just a few months ago, Meta removed 70,000 profiles, pages, and groups linked to sextortion rings, and more recently, it shut down 800 Facebook groups and over 800 accounts tied to a group known as the “Yahoo Boys.”

As sextortion becomes a bigger threat, these new tools and resources could make a big difference in protecting young users and stopping scammers in their tracks.