Meta has new anti-sextortion tools, but some say they're 'far too little, far too late' to protect youth

We've been begging for some of the things that they've announced here for probably a decade," Signy Arnason, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection's associate executive director, said of the new tools being tested by Meta.

Last April, 17-year-old Harry Burke died by suicide in eastern Prince Edward Island just hours after sending nude images of himself to someone who claimed to be a teenaged girl.

Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, has announced it's testing new tools — including nudity filters and trigger warnings — designed to protect its users from sextortion and other forms of online intimate image abuse.

Signy Arnason of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection says social media companies have a lot more work to do when it comes to shielding young people from online harm.

CBC News asked a Meta spokesperson whether the company has plans to implement geofencing, age verification or the image tracking suggested by the centre, but it did not address those issues in its response.

"I know from research that I'm doing with my... digital safety team, especially talking to young girls, that they really get bombarded with unwanted, say, dick pics or intimate images from often adult men once they join up to social media companies," said Mendes.