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Snap is rolling out intense new protections for teenagers\u2019 Snapchat accounts in an effort to \u201caddress a growing trend of sophisticated sextortion scams.\u201d Among them are new warnings and automatic friend request blocks targeting accounts that may be bad actors.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The features are aimed at stemming the tide of sextortion scams, the company writes in a blog post about the changes<\/a>. The scams, in which bad actors threaten teens and children that they will reveal sexually explicit photos of them unless they pay a ransom\u00a0or send more such material, is a growing problem that \u201chas resulted in an alarming number of deaths by suicide,\u201d according to the FBI<\/a>. The bureau writes on its site that even when the scammers are paid, they will often release the materials anyway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n To stop scammers, Snap says it will now show a warning message in the app when teens receive a message from someone that others have blocked or reported, or when that person\u2019s account is from a \u201cregion where the teen\u2019s network isn\u2019t typically located.\u201d The warning presents options to report or block the person, or just tap \u201cOkay\u201d to chat with them. Before this, the disclaimer would show up for accounts that don\u2019t share mutual friends with you or aren\u2019t associated with someone in your contacts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Snapchat app will also \u201cprevent delivery of a friend request altogether\u201d when it comes from an account with no mutual friends or that \u201chas a history of accessing Snapchat in locations often associated with scamming activity.\u201d Snap says these are all potential signs of scammy activity.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The sextortion issue isn\u2019t just limited to Snapchat. It\u2019s particularly been an issue as AI has enabled people to quickly and easily make fake nudes of others<\/a>. Warnings like these may not stop it entirely, but companies have to do something to deal with the issue, particularly as governments increasingly push to regulate social media<\/a>, ostensibly to protect children. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n In addition to the new friend request warnings, Snap is also trying to clarify its location sharing settings. It\u2019s moving them all to one location so that users can \u201csee exactly which friends they are sharing their location with, update their location settings, and remove their location from the map.\u201d As shown in the image above, that means you can choose to share your location with all of your friends, all except specific ones, or only certain friends. The company also says it\u2019s adding \u201cmore frequent reminders\u201d of who users are sharing their location info with.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n