Instagram: what are the new measures to protect minors from blackmail with intimate photos ?

Meta, accused in the United States and France of harming the mental health of adolescents, had already announced in January a first round of measures to better protect young users. Lionel BONAVENTURE/AFP

Meta announced this Thursday, April 11, 2024, new measures on Instagram to protect young people from blackmail with nude photos, the platforms being increasingly scrutinized in Europe and the United States for the protection of minors online.

Meta will thus set up a "nudity controller" on Instagram, set by default on minors' accounts, which will automatically detect images with nudity received on the application's messaging system and make them blurry.

"This way, the recipient is not unwantedly exposed to intimate content and has the choice to view this image or not& ;quot;, explains to AFP Capucine Tuffier, in charge of child protection at Meta France.

Awareness messages on blackmail with photos of a sexual nature, also called "sextortion", will be sent at the same time to the sender and receiver of the images, reminding them that this sensitive content can lead to screenshots and transfers by malicious people. "This is about reducing the creation and sharing of this type of image", summarizes Ms. Tuffier.

A "criminal"account

Furthermore, when an account has been identified by Meta's artificial intelligence tools as potentially being the source of this type of blackmail, its interactions with minor users will be strongly limited. An account of potential "maldoer" will therefore not be able to send private messages to a minor's account, will not have access to its complete list of subscribers (the accounts of minors being hidden) and the accounts of minors will not be able to send private messages to a minor's account. will no longer appear in the search bar, details Capucine Tuffier.

Meta will also warn a young user if they have come into contact with a potential blackmailer. The minor will then be directed to a dedicated "Stop Sextortion" and will have access to a telephone crisis line in partnership with associations. These new measures will be tested starting in May in a handful of countries in Central and Latin America before a global deployment in the coming months.

Meta, accused in the United States and France of harming the mental health of adolescents, had already announced in January a first round of measures to better protect young users. Among these, a minor user will now need explicit permission from their parents to change their account from private to public, access more so-called "sensitive" or have the possibility of receiving messages from people he does not already follow on the platform.

The European Commission has launched separate investigations into Meta, Snap (Snapchat), TikTok, YouTube on measures implemented to protect "physical and mental health& ;quot; miners.