Badoo has introduced a new feature that will stop users taking screenshots while on the app, in an attempt to prevent the sharing of private conversations and photos.
The update is currently only available on Android devices, although iOS users will receive a warning message when they try to take one. It explains the potential harms of sharing screenshots and encourages people to stop taking them without permission.
Screenshots that are shared without consent can lead to a variety of online harms, such as revenge porn, slut-shaming and body-shaming. Badoo has started to roll out these new blocks as an extra preventive measure.
According to Refinery29, Badoo’s UK Brand Marketing Director Natasha Briefel said in a statement: “The safety of our users is of the utmost importance to us and we are constantly developing new technology to protect daters on [our] platform.
“This new Screenshot Block feature is yet another way we hope to encourage honesty from our daters, allowing them to chat freely without the worry that their private messages or photos could become public.”
A survey of Badoo’s community found that 57% of users are worried about their personal content being shared elsewhere on the internet, while one-quarter have been victims of this in the past.
Badoo added the ‘Private Detector’ technology last year which automatically detects and blurs unsolicited nude images. Recipients have the option to immediately report the sender without having to view the picture first.
Parent app Bumble made a commitment at the start of 2021 to ban users for using abusive and harmful language such as body-shaming, homophobia and sexism.
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