Instagram will now protect you from unsolicited nude images

The optional user controls will help people shield themselves from nude photos and other unwanted messages.

Posted by By Saurabh Jadhav
Instagram will now protect you from unsolicited nude images

Meta-owned social media platform Instagram is testing a new feature that will protect users from getting unsolicited nude photos.

An early screenshot tweeted by researcher Alessandro Paluzzi implies that “Nudity protection” technology ‘covers photos that may contain nudity in chat,’ which gives users the option to view them or not.

Instagram parent Meta confirmed to The Verge that this feature is indeed developing. It plans to share more facts in the coming weeks.

Meta spokesperson Liz Fernandez said, “We’re working closely with experts to ensure these new features preserve people’s privacy while giving them control over the messages they receive.”

Last year, The Pew Research Center publicized a report that found 33% of women under 35 had been sexually harassed online.

According to Meta, the technology will not allow the firm to view the actual messages or share them with third parties.

The tech giant correlated these controls to its “Hidden Words” feature, allowing users to automatically filter direct message requests containing offensive content.

“Some will come forward and say [cyber flashing] is harmless. Everyone struggles with the fact it isn’t facing to face, but you can’t rank sexual offenses like that. The harm of sexual offenses is so significant, and different forms of offending can have the same impact on different people,” Durham Law School’s professor Clare McGlynn, an expert in image-based sexual abuse, told HuffPost.

Multiple jurisdictions, including California and the UK, have targeted cyber flashing – or sending unwanted nude photos -. If the Online Safety Bill is passed by the UK parliament, it could become a criminal offense.

There are similar rules in other countries. In California, for instance, the state legislature and senate voted unanimously to allow users to sue over unsolicited nude photos and other sexually graphic material last month.

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Saurabh Jadhav
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I am an ambivert, an avid reader, a movie buff, a tea connoisseur, and a staunch fan of Priyanka Chopra Jonas. I like to give my insights through words, which come naturally to me. They also help me to express the myriads of emotions I go through. When not working, I'm either watching the latest tech videos or flipping through pages.