Meta Launches New Features to Protect Teens From Sextortion Scams

On Thursday, October 17, Meta announced it would be launching a new campaign to help its teen users spot sextortion scams. This comes after the company announced Instagram Teen Accounts exactly a month ago. 

“Sextortion is a horrific crime, where financially-driven scammers target young adults and teens around the world, threatening to expose their intimate imagery if they don’t get what they want,” read a statement from Meta obtained by First for Women. “Today, we’re announcing new measures in our fight against these criminals—including an education campaign to raise awareness among teens and parents about how to spot sextortion scams and what to do to take back control if they’re targeted by one of these scams. We’re also announcing significant new safety features to further help prevent sextortion on our apps.” 

The campaign's rollout will block certain users from screenshotting certain pictures sent in a direct message (DM), hiding users' follower and following counts from people's accounts Meta thinks are sextortion scams, revealing what country the person you are chatting with is from and initiating a nudity protection setting on any pictures that the company thinks are too revealing. 

As of now, all of this only applies to people 18 and under. 

How did Meta create the restrictions to help fight sextortion scams? 

Meta teamed up with both the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and a nonprofit organization called Thorn, whose sole purpose is to help children learn how to defend themselves when it comes to sexual abuse. 

“The dramatic rise in sextortion scams is taking a heavy toll on children and teens, with reports of online enticement increasing by over 300% from 2021 to 2023,” John Shehan, a senior vice president from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children said in the press release. “Campaigns like this bring much-needed education to help families recognize these threats early.” 

Kelbi Schnabel, a senior manager at Thron, echoed similar thoughts by saying, “Our research at Thorn has shown that sextortion is on the rise and poses an increasing risk to youth. It’s a devastating threat— and joint initiatives like this that aim to inform kids about the risks and empower them to take action are crucial.”

Meta also plans to show all teen users a video outlining these new guidelines. The video will also highlight NCMEC’s Take It Down tool, which helps prevent teens from sharing explicit images. Meta will also share a link to a 24/7 Crisis Text Line with the teens should they need or want to talk to someone about the content they see online. 

Shehan says, “By equipping young people with knowledge and directing them to resources like NCMEC’s CyberTipline and Take it Down, we can better protect them from falling victim to online exploitation.” 

What are sextortion scams? 

Sextortion scams are when internet scammers coerce people into sending explicit messages or images and then using that material to blackmail them. 

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Sextortion scams “start when young people believe they are communicating with someone their own age who is interested in a relationship or with someone who is offering something of value.”

After that, the FBI says that the criminals “threaten to publish that content, or they threaten violence, to get the victim to produce more images.” 

There are also financial sextortion scams, which the FBI defines as “the offender receives sexually explicit material from the child and then threatens to release the compromising material unless the victim sends money and/or gift cards.” 

They also noted that this type of scam is on the rise and “has resulted in an alarming number of deaths by suicide.” 

Meta’s new campaign aims to fight these sorts of scams and make social media apps more enjoyable for users. 

If you or someone you know are experiencing sextortion scams call 1-800-CALL-FBI or go to tips.fbi.gov. 

For help regarding suicide, please call 988.

For more on online scams, keep scrolling!

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