Snapchat rolled out more safety measures designed to protect teenagers, making it harder for predators to target them for “sextortion” — a scam that exploits victims sexually and financially.
On Tuesday, Snapchat announced the new features that it will be integrating in the app, including expanded warning pop-ups, which the user would receive the moment someone not on their contact list tries contacting them.
Aside from this, teenagers would also receive a warning message in case they receive a chat from a user who has been previously reported by others. They would also receive a warning if they are messaged from a location where none of the user’s contacts are from.
Blocking tools were also implemented by the company, which would make it harder to create new accounts on the app.
Snapchat, in a blog post, said that these things are the “signs that the person may be a scammer.” In addition, friend requests from areas known to be a hub for scammers, would also be denied by the app for the teen’s ultimate safety.
The new feature of the app also aims to prevent what CNN reported as “financial sextortion,” which is a growing problem on social media. In this type of scam, actors try to gain the trust of teenagers, then urge them to send explicit or sexual photos. Later, in exchange for those photos not to make their way to the public eye, teens are forced to pay.
“These features were designed to better protect teens from potential online harms and to enhance the real-friend connections that make Snapchat so unique,” said Jacqueline Beauchere, the company’s Global Head of Platform Safety, in an exclusive statement to CNN.
Officials from the law enforcement department have revealed an increase in cases of sextortion. Most of the time, actors who dupe teens to send explicit photos are located overseas and their prime target are often youngsters who are lured into believing that the friendly young teen in the profile is the one they are actually talking to.
