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BUSINESS Friday 12 april 2024
A13

Instagram begins blurring nudity in messages to HEALTH

protect teens and fight sexual extortion DOCTOR ON DUTY

Oranjestad
Hospital 7:00 pm / 10:00pm
By KELVIN CHAN Tel. 527 4000
AP Business Writer San Nicolas
LONDON (AP) — Insta-
gram says it’s deploying Imsan 24 hours
Tel.524 8833
new tools to protect young Women in Difficulties
people and combat sex-
ual extortion, including a PHARMACY ON DUTY
feature that will automati- Oranjestad:
cally blur nudity in direct del Pueblo : Tel.582 1253
San Nicolas:
messages. San Lucas:Tel. 584 5119
The social media platform
said in a blog post Thurs- OTHER
day that it’s testing out the Dental Clinic 587 9850
features as part of its cam- Blood Bank Aruba 587 0002
paign to fight sexual scams Urgent Care 586 0448
and other forms of “im- Walk-In Doctor’s Clinic
age abuse,” and to make +297 588 0539
Women in Difficulties
it tougher for criminals to EMERGENCY
contact teens.
Sexual extortion, or sextor- Police 100
tion, involves persuading Oranjestad 527 3140
527 3200
Noord
a person to send explicit Sta. Cruz 527 2900
photos online and then San Nicolas 584 5000
threatening to make the The Instagram logo is seen on a cell phone in Boston, USA, Oct. 14, 2022. Police Tipline 11141
images public unless the Associated Press Ambulancia 911
victim pays money or en- Fire Dept. 115
gages in sexual favors. Re- from seeing unwanted nu- For people sending direct nounced can protect Red Cross 582 2219
cent high-profile cases in- dity in their DMs, but also to messages with nudity, they senders, and that is wel- TAXI SERVICES
clude two Nigerian broth- protect them from scam- will get a message remind- come. q Taxi Tas 587 5900
ers who pleaded guilty mers who may send nude ing them to be cautious Prof. Taxi 588 0035
to sexually extorting teen images to trick people into when sending “sensitive Taxi D.T.S. 587 2300
boys and young men in sending their own images photos.” They’ll also be Taxi Serv. Aruba 583 3232
Michigan, including one in return,” Instagram said. informed that they can A1 Taxi Serv. 280 2828
who took his own life, and The feature will be turned unsend the photos if they Women in Difficulties
a Virginia sheriff’s deputy on by default globally for change their mind, but TRAVEL INFO
who sexually extorted and teens under 18. Adult us- that there’s a chance oth- Aruba Airport 524 2424
kidnapped a 15-year-old ers will get a notification ers may have already seen American Airlines 582 2700
girl. encouraging them to ac- them. Avianca 588 0059
Instagram and other social tivate it. As with many of Meta’s Jet Blue 588 2244
media companies have Images with nudity will be tools and policies around Surinam 582 7896
faced growing criticism for blurred with a warning, giv- child safety, critics saw the Women in Difficulties
not doing enough to pro- ing users the option to view move as a positive step, AID FOUNDATIONS
tect young people. Mark it. They’ll also get an option but one that does not go
Zuckerberg, the CEO of Ins- to block the sender and re- far enough. FAVI- Visually Impaired
Tel. 582 5051
tagram’s owner Meta Plat- port the chat. “I think the tools an-
forms, apologized to the Alcoholics Anonymous
Tel. 736 2952
parents of victims of such Narcotics Anonymous
abuse during a Senate Tel. 583 8989
hearing earlier this year. Fundacion Contra Violencia
Meta, which is based in Relacional Tel. 583 5400
Menlo Park, California, also Centre for Diabetes
owns Facebook and What- Tel. 524 8888
sApp but the nudity blur Child Abuse Prevention
Tel. 582 4433
feature won’t be added
to messages sent on those Quota Club Tel. 525 2672
Women in Difficulties
platforms. General Info
Instagram said scammers
often use direct messages Phone Directory Tel. 118
to ask for “intimate imag-
es.” To counter this, it will
soon start testing out a nu-
dity-protection feature for
direct messages that blurs
any images with nudity
“and encourages people
to think twice before send-
ing nude images.”
“The feature is designed
not only to protect people facebook.com/arubatoday/