Anti-harassment button: Instagram announces new feature – 11/09/2023 – Tech

To combat cyber harassment among young people in France, Instagram announced this Thursday (9) the creation of a “safety button” that allows you to call an emergency line directly, a global first.

Anyone who reports harassment will have access to a telephone call button that will put them in contact with psychologists and lawyers on 3018, the national helpline number for victims of digital violence.

For the private association e-Enfance, promoter of the initiative, the hotline button, which connects to 3018 without having to leave the application, is an effective and long-awaited instrument.

“We’ve been asking for a safety button for years. We’ve also been asking for one at European level,” said e-Enfance’s general director, Justine Atlan.

“It took a little time for us to understand, but we are pleased that direct access has been integrated”, added the general director.

TikTok, a very popular network among young people, will not create a direct call button, but anyone who reports a case will receive a link to the 3018 service website.

Almost 25% of French families have already faced the problem of virtual harassment against a minor, according to a recent survey carried out for e-Enfance: 15% of primary school students and between 25% and 27% of secondary school students said they had gone through this.

To combat the phenomenon, the French government presented, at the end of September, a series of measures that range from the systematic reporting of cases to the courts to the desire to exclude harassing students from social networks.