Instagram’s parent company Meta announced on Thursday that the app will test features that blur messages containing nudity to protect teenagers and prevent potential scammers from reaching them, in an effort to ease concerns about harmful content on its apps.
A growing number of people in the US and Europe are putting pressure on the tech giant because of allegations that its apps were addictive and caused mental health issues in young people.
As per Meta, Instagram’s protection feature for direct messages will employ the device’s machine learning capabilities to ascertain whether an image sent via the service contains nudity.
The feature will be turned on by default for users under 18 and Meta will notify adults to encourage them to turn it on.
“Because the images are analyzed on the device itself, nudity protection will also work in end-to-end encrypted chats, where Meta won’t have access to these images – unless someone chooses to report them to us,” the company said.
Unlike Meta’s Messenger and WhatsApp apps, direct messages on Instagram are not encrypted but the company has said it plans to roll out encryption for the service.
Furthermore, Meta disclosed that it was testing new pop-up messages for users who might have interacted with potentially sextortion-related accounts and that it was creating technology to help identify these kinds of accounts.
The social media behemoth announced in January that it would block more content from teens on Facebook and Instagram. The purpose of this move was to make it harder for teenagers to encounter sensitive content, such as images of eating disorders, suicide, and self-harm.
The company was sued in October by the attorneys general of 33 US states, including New York and California, who claimed the company had repeatedly misled the public about the risks associated with its platforms.
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