Social media platform Instagram is to test a suite of features to help protect people from sextortion, a form of blackmail where someone threatens to share somebody else’s intimate images if they don’t pay up or provide confidential information.

The Meta-owned platform said that, as part of the new tools, it’ll soon start trialling a new “nudity protection feature” in direct messages, automatically blurring images that its machine learning detects as containing nudity.

The feature will also prompt users to “think twice before sending nude images” in response, remind them that photos can be unsent, and provide an option to block and report the user.

Nudity protection is set to be turned on by default for those under 18, and an opt-in feature for adults.

The social media platform said that it’s also developing technology for identifying accounts that may potentially be engaging in sextortion scams, looking at a range of common signifiers related to sextortion behaviour.

It’s also making it more difficult for possible sextortion accounts to interact with people, with message requests from potential sextortion accounts now being sent to the “hidden requests” folder.

Users under 18 also won’t have a “message” button on their profile when viewed by potential sextortion accounts, and the platform is testing hiding teens from being seen by potential sextortion accounts in follower, following, and like lists, as well as the Search function.

Further, it’s trialling new pop-up messages for users who may have had contact with an account which has been removed for sextortion, directing them to different resources and support helplines.

These features being tested, as well as others, build on Instagram’s ongoing work to help disrupt the crime.

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“Financial sextortion is a horrific crime,” said Instagram in its announcement post. “We’ve spent years working closely with experts, including those experienced in fighting these crimes, to understand the tactics scammers use to find and extort victims online, so we can develop effective ways to help stop them.”

The internet-propelled crime has been linked to many suicides by victims of sextortion, not least under 18s.