Instagram has announced a series of new safety features aimed at protecting users, particularly teens, from the growing threat of sextortion scams.

Sextortion is a disturbing crime that involves scammers threatening to expose intimate imagery to extort money or favors from their victims. 

The social media platform said with these new measures such as hiding follower and following lists, preventing screenshots of sensitive content and global rollout of nudity protection, it aims to strengthen the defenses of its platform, making it harder for scammers to exploit users.

According to Instagram, “these measures are part of a broader campaign informed by leading safety organizations such as NCMEC, Thorn, and Childnet, designed to raise awareness and empower families in the fight against online exploitation.

Instagram said: “Accounts exhibiting potentially scammy behavior will no longer be able to view users’ follower or following lists, a common method used by sextortion criminals to target individuals.

“We will soon prevent users from taking screenshots or screen recordings of ephemeral images or videos sent in direct messages, DMs using the “view once” or “allow replay” feature. 

“This protection extends to Instagram’s web version to prevent circumvention of the feature.

“Instagram’s nudity protection feature, which blurs sensitive images in DMs, is being rolled out globally. Enabled by default for teens under 18, this feature warns users of the risks associated with sending sensitive content.

“New safeguards for teen accounts Instagram’s newly introduced teen accounts, which are available to users under 18, provide built-in protections that limit who can contact teens, the content they can see, and the amount of time they spend online. 

“These accounts default teens into stricter message settings, ensuring that they cannot be messaged by anyone they don’t follow or aren’t connected to.”

VANGUARD