Instagram is introducing a number of new security features to protect users from sextortion scammers, the company announced today which is part of Meta. In particular, Instagram already will not allow people to take screenshots or record the screen of ephemera or videos sent in private messages.
Until now, you could take screenshots of ephemeral content in Instagram direct messages, but the other person would be notified that the content had been saved. With this change, if we send someone a photo or video via direct messages using the “view once” or “allow playback” features, the other person will not be able to save the content.
Additionally, Instagram will not allow people to open “view once” or “allow playback” images or videos on desktop to ensure they cannot bypass security measures. The purpose of this is to ensure that those contents that are chosen to see once, can only be seen once.
The Meta-owned social network says the new features complement the recent launch of Teen Accounts, which automatically enroll young users in an option with built-in protections that limit who can contact them.
With Teen Accounts, young users can’t receive messages from anyone they don’t follow or aren’t connected to, but they can still receive follow requests from anyone. Now, Instagram is making it difficult for suspicious accounts, such as those recently created, to request to follow teens.
Depending on how fraudulent an account appears, Instagram will block the follow request completely or it will send it to a teenager’s spam folder.
The app is also implementing security notices in direct messages so that Teens know when they are talking to someone who might live in a different country. The company says it does this because sextortion scammers often lie about where they live to get teens to trust them.
Since scammers often use a teen’s follower and follower lists to try to blackmail them, Instagram will prevent accounts that display fraudulent behavior from seeing people’s followed and followers lists. These accounts will also not be able to see who liked someone’s post or see what photos they have been tagged in.