Snapchat is Releasing New security Features Designed to Shield Teenagers

Snapchat's most recent attempt to combat the sexual and financial exploitation fraud known as sextortion is to make it more difficult for teens to receive messages from strangers on the service.

Expanded warning pop-ups that show up when a youngster receives a message from someone they don't have in their contacts list or who they don't have as common friends were among the new safety measures the firm unveiled on Tuesday. Snapchat stated in a blog post on Tuesday that kids will now see a warning notice if they receive a conversation from a user who has been blocked or reported by others, or who is from a location that the teen's other contacts aren't in. These are "signs that the person may be a scammer."

Additionally, Snapchat will no longer allow teenagers to send friend requests to or from accounts that are situated in areas frequently linked to fraudsters and with whom they do not have shared connections.

The new features not only broaden Snapchat's already extensive list of youth safety measures, but they also specifically target financial sextortion, an alarming and increasingly prevalent kind of social media scam in which unscrupulous individuals gain the trust of young people, persuade them to send explicit or sexual images, and then demand payment in exchange for keeping the images private.

Prior to the introduction, Jacqueline Beauchere, Snap's Global Head of Platform Safety, gave an exclusive statement to CNN stating, "These features were designed to better protect teens from potential online harms and to enhance the real-friend connections that make Snapchat so unique."

Law enforcement agencies have issued warnings in recent years about a rise in online sextortion schemes, when malevolent individuals, usually residing abroad, prey on adolescents and teenagers, frequently using identities that seem to be those of kind peers. Sextortion has occasionally led to suicides.

In an effort to curb financial sextortion, Meta in April also unveiled new capabilities that will alert users when they come into contact with someone who has engaged in this practice. Additionally, earlier this year, a Senate subcommittee hearing was held when the CEOs of Meta and Snap, along with other prominent figures in the social media industry, were asked to speak about their efforts to safeguard youth from online exploitation.

Enhancements to Snapchat's blocking features, which will stop users from just making new accounts to get around a block, were also announced on Tuesday. It will now immediately block any new accounts generated on the same device when a user blocks another account.

Snapchat's "Snap Map" function, which is turned off by default but allows users to update their location to share it live with friends, is also getting more regular alerts sent to all users, including teenagers, about their location settings. According to the firm, users will be able to change their location preferences, hide their position from the map, and choose which friends they want to share their whereabouts with all from within the app.

The changes expand upon Snapchat's already-existing adolescent safety features, which include tools for filtering out unsuitable content and a "Family Center" where parents can monitor their 13 to 17-year-old users' activities.