Instagram to Blur Out Nude Images Sent to Teens in DMs

variety.com:

Todd Spangler NY Digital Editor Meta, which has faced ongoing political pressure amid criticism that its apps don’t take enough measures to ensure the safety of children, announced new steps it’s taking to protect users from “sextortion” and “other forms of intimate image abuse.” Among the new measures: Instagram is introducing a new nudity-protection feature in direct messages, which blurs images detected as containing nudity and will prompt users “to think twice before sending nude images.” On Instagram, nudity protection will be turned on by default for teens under 18 globally, and the app will also show a notification to adults encouraging them to turn it on.

According to Meta, the feature is designed to not only protect people from seeing unwanted nudity in their DMs but also to protect them from scammers who may send nude images to trick people into sending their own images in return. “While people overwhelmingly use DMs to share what they love with their friends, family or favorite creators, sextortion scammers may also use private messages to share or ask for intimate images,” Meta said in a blog post Thursday announcing the feature.

With the new feature enabled, when Instagram users receive an image containing nudity, it will be automatically blurred under a warning screen (and they can choose whether or not to view it).

In that case, Instagram also will display a message encouraging users not to feel pressure to respond, with an option to block the sender and report the chat.