Meta Adds Nudity Blurring to Instagram for Youth Safety
Meta is implementing a new feature on Instagram that blurs messages containing nudity, with the aim of protecting young users from exposure to inappropriate content and reducing the risk of sextortion scams. This Nudity Protection feature will be enabled by default for users under the age of 18. Adults will also receive notifications encouraging them to activate the feature. As part of a broader safety initiative, the company is working on technology to detect accounts that may be involved in sextortion and is testing alerts for users who have interacted with potentially harmful accounts.
To further address online safety concerns, Meta is collaborating with law enforcement and online safety organizations to educate young people about the dangers of sharing sexually explicit images. New child safety helplines are being tested within the app's reporting flows, allowing teens to report concerns such as nudity and sexual exploitation.
In response to criticisms over user addiction and mental health impacts, Meta has pledged to enhance privacy and security on Instagram by introducing end-to-end encryption, a feature that is currently absent from the platform's direct messaging service. This comes alongside efforts to limit young users' access to sensitive content related to issues such as suicide, self-harm, and eating disorders.
