Midwest
Instagram blocks nude images in DMs to mitigate 'sextortion' crimes reaching record numbers
This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is having thoughts of suicide, please contact the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Instagram recently announced that the photo and video-sharing platform popular among young users will be taking new steps to combat sexual extortion, or sextortion — a crime that continues to victimize more people, including minors, according to the FBI.
Sextortion is a social media crime trend in which bad actors entice or solicit a minor to engage in sexual acts or send blackmail money, according to the FBI, which received more than 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion involving at least 12,600 victims between October 2021 and March 2023.
“Companies have a responsibility to ensure the protection of minors who use their platforms,” John Shehan, senior vice president of National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, (NCMEC) said in a response to Meta’s new features to prevent sextortion on Instagram. “Meta’s proposed device-side safety measures within its encrypted environment is encouraging. We are hopeful these new measures will increase reporting by minors and curb the circulation of online child exploitation.”
A new Instagram feature called Nudity Protection, which will be turned on by default for users under 18, will blur nude images sent through direct messages (DMs) on the app and will prompt users with messages when the app detects nudity in a user’s DMs.
AFTER MICHIGAN TEEN’S SUICIDE, NIGERIAN BROTHERS PLEAD GUILTY TO PLANNING DEADLY SEXTORTION SCHEME
A new Instagram feature called Nudity Protection, which will be turned on by default for users under 18, will blur nude images sent through direct messages (DMs) on the app and prompt users with messages when the app detects nudity in a user’s DMs. (Meta)
Instagram users with the Nudity Protection feature turned on will also “see a message encouraging them to reconsider” when they try to send a nude photo detected by the app, according to an April 11 press release from Meta.
Additionally, users will get “tips” when they send or receive nude images reminding them that “people may screenshot or forward images without your knowledge, that your relationship to the person may change in the future, and that you should review profiles carefully in case they’re not who they say they are,” the press release states. Instagram will prompt users with a link to various resources curated by experts.
FATHER OF TEEN SEXTORTION VICTIM WARNS OF ‘ALARMING’ FBI REPORT
Instagram users with the Nudity Protection feature turned on will also “see a message encouraging them to reconsider” when they try to send a nude photo detected by the app, according to an April 11 press release from Meta. (Meta)
They also link to a range of resources, including NCMEC’s free service called “Take it Down,” which is meant to help victims of sextortion erase explicit images of victims or get bad actors to stop sharing them online. The tool can be accessed at https://takeitdown.ncmec.org.
Meta’s announcement came the same day two Nigerian nationals, who were extradited to the U.S., pleaded guilty to conspiring to sexually exploit teenage boys through sextortion two years after one such scheme led to a Michigan teenager’s suicide.
MICHIGAN FAMILY SOUNDS ALARM ON SON’S ‘SEXTORTION’ SUICIDE AFTER ARRESTS OF 3 NIGERIAN MEN
Jordan DeMay was 17 years old when Samuel Ogoshi, 22, and his brother, Samson Ogoshi, 20, both of Nigeria, posed as a woman on Instagram using a hacked account and struck up a conversation with the teenager, ultimately blackmailing him into sending money and threatening him for more until he took his own life in March 2022.
Nigerian brothers Samuel and Samson Ogoshi pleaded guilty to conspiring to extort minors. (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission)
“Nothing is a coincidence with them,” Jordan’s father, John DeMay, told Fox News Digital on Instagram’s announcement last week. “Jordan’s case is the first one in history that has been … extradited and prosecuted on the sextortion level. Meta … and other social media companies that are watching this case, and they’re paying attention to what’s happening because it’s the first in history.”
DeMay filed a civil lawsuit against Meta after his son’s death.
FBI WARNS TEEN BOYS INCREASINGLY TARGETED IN ONLINE ‘SEXTORTION’ SCHEMES
“There is responsibility for them … and we’re hoping that other families will follow suit,” he said. “Some of them are and some of them are going to. But there are a lot of protections with social media companies right now, and we’re trying to tear down some of those barriers to be able to allow families that have been victims because of of [the companies’] actions and not actions, and hold them accountable financially, because the only way that they’re going to stop doing it is to hit them in the pocketbook.”
Three Nigerian men were arrested in connection with the sextortion of 100 young men and the 2022 suicide of 17-year-old Jordan DeMay. (Handout)
The same night the Ogoshis started communicating with Jodan through Instagram, the teenager sent an explicit photo of himself to the account that he thought belonged to a woman. Samuel Ogoshi threatened to expose it and make it go “viral” online if Jordan did not immediately send money, prosecutors said. Jordan complied and sent the suspect money, but the crime only escalated from there as Ogoshi demanded more and more money from the 17-year-old.
The exchange went on for hours that evening until Jordan told Samuel Ogoshi that he was going to kill himself.
WARNING SIGNS OF SUICIDE: WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT PREVENTION, RED FLAGS AND HOW TO DEAL WITH THE ISSUE
“Good,” Samuel Ogoshi wrote. “Do that fast. Or I’ll make you do it. I swear to God.”
John DeMay said he would tell Jordan “every single day” if he had “a chance” that threats from the sextortionist were not the end of his life. (Handout)
The Ogoshi brothers face a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years for each charge of conspiracy to sexually exploit minors. An indictment against the two brothers alleged they were involved in hundreds of similar schemes – many involving minors.
The average age of sextortion victims is between 14 and 17 years old, the FBI said in a press release earlier this year, but the agency noted that any child can become a victim. Offenders of financially motivated sextortion typically originate from African and Southeast Asian countries, according to the FBI. The FBI also saw a 20% increase in sextortion incidents involving minors between October 2022 and March 2023.
GROWING ‘SEXTORTION’ TREND TRICKS BOYS INTO SENDING EXPLICIT IMAGES THROUGH GAMING SITES, EXTORTED FOR MONEY
Sextortion can lead to suicide and self-harm. Between October 2021 and March 2023, the majority of online financial extortion victims were boys. These reports involved at least 20 suicides, the FBI said.
WATCH: John DeMay speaks about son’s sextortion
Christopher Dietzel, research associate on the iMPACTS Project at McGill University, called on Meta to do more to prevent sextortion.
“Automatically blurring nude images in direct messages is not enough, nor does it address the potential for sextortion, since perpetrators can still save, share, and use these images to abuse and exploit their victims,” Dietzel said. “Instagram and other social media companies need to put policies and measures in place that hold perpetrators accountable, address the dissemination and exploitation of non-consensual sexual images, and educate young people about potential harms.”
Melissa Henson, vice president of the Parents Television and Media Council, called on Congress to pass “online child protection legislation like the Kids Online Safety Act, the Children and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act 2.0, the EARN IT Act, among others.”
“[T]here is simply no reason, and no excuse, for Congress not to ensure our children are better protected online,” Henson said. “Our children face an online world that is primarily designed for adults, with little to no protections for them. They are up against powerful algorithms that feed harmful content to them. They can interact with adults who may turn out to be predators and fall victim to sextortion schemes. They can access sexually explicit and graphically violent content with a click of a button. Congress must hold the tech industry accountable for protecting our children.”
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez rally’s with Michigan’s Abdul El-Sayed
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders visited Michigan to stump for progressive candidates July 18.
In their first stop on a statewide swing through battleground Michigan ahead of the state’s Aug. 4 primary, two of the nation’s leading progressives fired up a crowd at the Detroit Opera House to elect former Detroit and Wayne County health director Abdul El-Sayed in his Democratic primary against centrist U.S. Rep. Haley Stevens, D-Birmingham.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-New York, described swings in election outcomes in Michigan as reflective of a political failure to address the needs of the working class.
“But when the stakes are so high, when more people than ever are living so close to the bone, eventually we have to ask ourselves is the answer to our problems to turn to the same playbook over and over again?” she asked at the July 18 rally. “No,” she said with those from the crowd joining her. Ocasio-Cortez never named Stevens, but implicitly criticized her as a status quo candidate. Michigan’s U.S. Senate race is the only contested Democratic primary for a seat in the chamber in which she has made an endorsement.
The race has become a nationally watched litmus test for the strength of competing ideological factions within the Democratic Party.
But U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont, began his speech by saying the contest represents more than that. “It is about democracy versus oligarchy, and we are on the side of democracy,” he said. When Sanders mentioned Stevens, the crowd booed, but the senator waved them off, describing the election as a contest not just between two candidates. “This is an election between Abdul and the billionaire class,” he said.
“Democracy is not about billionaires buying an election in Michigan or anywhere else,” Sanders said as he wrapped up his speech, which comes after recent campaign finance reports that indicate Stevens has benefitted from groups with unclear funding sources.
El-Sayed followed Sanders and took the stage to thunderous chants of “Abdul.” During his speech, he did a call and repeat with the crowd on his signature campaign pledge, promising, “Money out of politics. Money in your pocket. Medicare for All.”
El-Sayed talked about his desire to pursue public health as a way to tackle health disparities and excoriated public health management under President Donald Trump’s administration. “Can’t even eat the lettuce,” he said, a reference to the explosive diarrhea caused by cyclosporiasis.
El-Sayed recalled the day he learned U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, would not seek re-election, leaving an open race for his seat. “And I told myself maybe it’s time to go and get a U.S. senator who actually wants to fight,” El-Sayed said. “We got an opportunity in this race to fight for what we need and deserve.” He boasted that he hasn’t taken “a dime of corporate money” in his campaign, which he described as a response to an affordability crisis he said Americans face. To tackle those challenges, he called for a wealth tax on billionaires, banning corporate stock buybacks and targeting corporate monopolies.
He echoed an oft-repeated line connecting U.S. military support Israel as an impediment to tackling domestic issues. “I want my tax dollars in Michigan,” he said.
He cast his campaign as part of a national tradition of Americans coming together across divides to achieve progress. “In this country, we don’t ignore a sordid past, we assure a better future. But this country doesn’t correct on its own,” he said.
The primary has put on display divides within the Democratic Party.
El-Sayed supports guaranteed public health care for all while Stevens wants to see Affordable Care Act subsidies restored and backs a public health care option. El-Sayed has railed against the pro-Israel lobby while Stevens has backing from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. El-Sayed boasts support from the left flank of the Democratic Party while Stevens touts endorsements from more moderate Democrats.
Ahead of the El-Sayed rally in Detroit, Stevens touted her endorsement from the Congressional Black Caucus and highlighted policy priorities aimed at lifting up Black communities.
UAW President Shawn Fain echoed other speakers in describing the current political moment as an inflection point for demonstrating the power of the working class. “And the only reason we’re in the position we’re in in America right now is because too many Democrats can’t decide who the (expletive) they want to stand with,” he said, prompting huge applause in the crowd and bringing many to their feet. The UAW has endorsed El-Sayed in the primary.
While the evening seemed to cast the upcoming primary as a kind of referendum on the Democratic Party, Ocasio-Cortez said it’s not.
“I mean I think that primary elections aren’t referendums the party. They are referendums on that community,” she told reporters after the rally.
Stevens and her backers have argued that she is the more electable candidate in November who has the best chance to defeat Republican former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers of White Lake who has Trump’s endorsement.
Karen Kavanaugh, 62, of Troy, who attended the rally pushed back on the idea that to win in Michigan, Democrats need to run more moderate candidates. “I don’t necessarily think that that is true, and I think that people have not been given a different kind of message,” she said.
The airwaves in Michigan have been flooded with anti-El-Sayed ads, which he called “craven” and “insulting.” But, he said, “I wear them as a badge of honor.”
“It says that I’m willing to actually stand for something, and that there are people with a lot of power who see me as a threat and they should and we want politicians who power sees as a threat,” he told reporters.
While El-Sayed does not identify as a Democratic Socialist, members of the Democratic Socialists of America were in attendance at the rally. The upcoming Tuesday, Aug. 4 primary features intraparty contests with Democratic Socialists, including those hoping to unseat incumbents, and they hope to build on the momentum of DSA victories across the U.S.
Lila Brickner, 34, of Birmingham, a co-chair of the Democratic Socialist of America’s Metro Detroit chapter, called those wins a “huge wake up call to the establishment Dems in the Democratic Party that the status quo it isn’t working for most people.”
Rogers has argued that El-Sayed and the Democratic Socialists who back him share an agenda that doesn’t have appeal in Michigan. “The socialist takeover has its sights set on Michigan. That much is clear. They just have one major problem: we won’t let them get away with it,” he said in a July 18 statement.
In addition to El-Sayed, other Sanders-backed candidates spoke: state Rep. Donavan McKinney, D-Detroit, who wants to unseat U.S. Rep. Shri Thanedar, D-Detroit, in Michigan’s 13th Congressional District along with Michigan Senate candidates Abbas Alawieh and Eboni Taylor warmed up the crowd.
Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez are scheduled to hold events in by Lansing where they will stump alongside activist and 7th Congressional District Democratic candidate William Lawrence before heading to Grand Rapids on July 19.
Contact Clara Hendrickson at chendrickson@freepress.com or 313-296-5743.
Getty
DENVER, COLORADO – JULY 02: Manager Pat Murphy #21 of the Milwaukee Brewers walks to the mound while playing the Colorado Rockies in the sixth inning at Coors Field on July 02, 2024 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
The Milwaukee Brewers are sitting somewhat comfortably in first place in the NL Central. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t cause for worry.
Before losing pitcher Brandon Woodruff to shoulder surgery, the Brewers lost another key piece of their team.
After Friday night’s game against the Miami Marlins, manager Pat Murphy implied that an IL stint would be coming for outfielder Sal Frelick after he hurt his shoulder on a throw from right field. Luis Lara would replace him in the game.
Frelick, according to the Brewers, has been placed on the 10-day IL with a right shoulder strain.
In a corresponding move, outfielder Blake Perkins has been recalled from Triple-A Nashville.
More On Milwaukee Brewers’ Sal Frelick
Frelick’s injury was not sudden. His shoulder had been bothering him for around two months, according to Todd Rosiak of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. While a past scan revealed nothing more than inflammation, Frelick continued to have symptoms.
The discomfort was just limited to throwing until the last couple of weeks.
“I started feeling it swinging, not as bad as throwing, but it was creeping in there,” Frelick said.
This could very well explain the 2024 Gold Glover’s decline on both sides of the ball. After slashing .288/.351/.405 with 12 home runs and 19 stolen bases, Frelick has slashed just .236/.301/.330 with four home runs and six stolen bases.
His defense has also taken a hit. After having a career-high +7 Outs Above Average last year, per Baseball Savant, Frelick has just +1 Outs Above Average through 90 games this year.
Part of that can be attributed to a major decrease in arm value and strength.
The Brewers drafted Frelick in the first round of the 2021 MLB Draft out of Boston College. He would debut in 2023 as one of the best defensive outfielders in the game.
Perkins will take his place on the 26-man roster, but has struggled to a .157/.250/.258 slash line in 53 games this season.
Who Will Replace Frelick?
This likely won’t be a 10-day minimum stint for Frelick. The Brewers need to nip this in the bud now while the playoffs are far enough away.
While the Brewers could make an outfield addition before the Trade Deadline, it’s more likely that No. 4 prospect Lara will be seeing more time at right field.
Milwaukee signed Lara in 2022, and he has quickly risen through the ranks.
Lara doesn’t possess much power, but his run, field and arm tools are all elite, making him a logical fit to be Frelick’s replacement.
In limited at-bats, Lara has shown that he is up for the challenge with a .294/.429/.353 slash line in six games.
In 78 Triple-A games before he was called up, Lara had a .321/.432/.470 slash line with 24 stolen bases.
While Perkins is the more seasoned pick to replace Frelick, he is a glove-first, weak-hitting player. In his career, Perkins has a .223/.307/.330 slash line with 14 home runs in 295 games.
Jake Bauers also has experience in the outfield if need be.
One thing is for certain: if Frelick gets back to full health and starts hitting again, the Brewers will have a big chance of securing the NL Central once again.
Matthew Singer Matthew Singer is a sports reporter covering MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2025, and has two years of experience covering local professional, collegiate and high school sports, including writing for Cronkite News and Arizona PBS. More about Matthew Singer
Minneapolis, MN
Minnesota’s Clearest Lake Near Minneapolis Is A Gem With Fishing, Kayaking, And A Quaint Park – Islands
In Minnesota, every season is fishing and lake season. Those who live there will boast that the state actually has over 21,000 lakes, and that the official counter ignores those under 10 acres. Just north of Stillwater, the “birthplace of Minnesota,” is a lake that’s recently been found to have the clearest water in the Twin Cities area, Little Carnelian Lake. Located about 40 minutes away from Minneapolis, data analyzed by Discover the Cities in 2025 has shown that this lake has a water clarity of between 18.7 and 26 feet. That’s really impressive for a lake with an average depth of only 26 feet (its maximum is thought to be closer to 70 feet). Similarly, this lake in the watershed of the St. Croix River has also been found to rank among the cleanest in the Twin Cities Area, only beaten by places such as Bass Lake, Lake Elmo, and Bush Lake.
Little Carnelian Lake is right next to the similarly named Big Carnelian Lake, which was also found to have clean water. When most people go to the area, they choose this lake instead, meaning that visitors to its smaller counterpart will likely encounter fewer people. Your fishing or kayaking experience here, and at its park of the same name, will probably be more private.
Fishing at Little Carnelian Lake
When visiting Little Carnelian Lake, fishing is one of the premier activities. Visitors here are welcome to fish from the shore, from a small boat, or on the ice during the winter. Ice fishing, a seasonal favorite in Minnesota, is reported to be possible on the south end of the lake, while the north end has creeks that lead to cracks in the ice.
Those who visit Little Carnelian Lake will find an abundance of classic Minnesota lakefish species. These include northern pike, largemouth bass, bluegill, crappie, bullhead, and yellow perch, with the state’s Department of Natural Resources reporting that bluegills are most plentiful.
When fishing here, as well as anywhere in Minnesota, one of the most important things to keep in mind is mercury content in fish. Even though Little Carnelian Lake is one of the cleanest in the Twin Cities area, its fish still contain mercury due to environmental pollution.
Little Carnelian Park is great for kayaking, canoeing, and relaxation
Little Carnelian Lake has a quaint park attached to it called Little Carnelian Park, which is maintained by Stillwater, one of America’s most charming river towns and most affordable retirement destinations. It’s from this park that access to the lake is provided for those who want to enjoy it. Although there’s no public boat access, meaning that larger vehicles can’t be brought into the water here, canoes and kayaks can still be launched from the shoreline. To access this shoreline, visitors can follow a small trail that leads to the water’s edge. Those who don’t have their own kayak can first head to Square Lake Park; this popular body of water nearby offers kayak rentals.
Whenever you’re kayaking, canoeing, or fishing here, keep in mind that there’s no lifeguard. Those who want to stay on shore can enjoy benches and places to sit here. There’s also wildlife viewing, as deer have been spotted in the park before.
Limited parking is available at Little Carnelian Park. One should keep in mind before visiting that this park does not allow dogs, alcohol, or motor vehicles on its grounds. There are no amenities beyond a portable toilet. Also, note that there are many private properties along the lakefront; much of the shore is in a residential area, so visitors must be respectful.
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