Snap Adds New Warnings and Region Locks to Address Teen ‘Sextortion’ Scams

Snap is rolling out intense new protections for teens’ Snapchat accounts in an effort to “address a growing trend of sophisticated sextortion scams.” Among them are new warnings and automatic blocking of friend requests aimed at accounts that may be malicious.

The resources aim to curb the wave of sextortion scams, the company writes in a blog post about the changes. Scams, in which perpetrators threaten teens and children that they will reveal sexually explicit photos of them unless they pay a ransom or send more such material, are a growing problem that has “resulted in an alarming number of deaths by suicide.” according to the FBI. The agency writes on its website that even when scammers are paid, they often release the materials anyway.

To stop scammers, Snap says it will now show a warning message in the app when teens receive a message from someone who others have blocked or reported, or when that person’s account is from a “region where the teen’s network typically doesn’t. is located. ” The notice presents options to report or block the person, or just tap “Ok” to chat with them. Before that, the warning would appear for accounts that don’t share mutual friends with you or aren’t associated with anyone in your contacts.

The Snapchat app will also “completely prevent the delivery of a friend request” when it comes to an account with no mutual friends or one that “has a history of accessing Snapchat in locations often associated with fraudulent activity.” Snap says these are all potential signs of fraudulent activity.

The issue of sextortion is not just limited to Snapchat. It’s been a problem particularly because AI has allowed people to quickly and easily make fake nudes of other people. Warnings like these may not stop the situation entirely, but companies have to do something to address the problem, especially as governments increasingly push to regulate social media, ostensibly to protect children.

In addition to the new friend request warnings, Snap is also trying to clarify its location sharing settings. It’s moving them all to a single location so users can “see exactly which friends they’re sharing their location with, update their location settings, and remove their location from the map.” As shown in the image above, this means you can choose to share your location with all your friends except a specific few, or just a few friends. The company also says it is adding “more frequent reminders” of who users are sharing their location information with.