Parents of tweens and teens are well aware that social media is full of landmines for our children. Now, there’s a new one to worry about: sextortion, a term derived from a combination of the words “sex” and “extortion”—and even the federal government is on alert.
Near the end of 2022, after receiving more than 7,000 reports of sextortion of minors, the FBI joined forces with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to issue a national public safety alert.
In a press release, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania explained that sextortion “occurs when an individual, often a child, is threatened or blackmailed, usually online, by a person demanding sexual content (photos/videos) or money from the child against his or her will.”
Predators are motivated either by a desire to obtain explicit images of children, or they are financially motivated, Special Agent Eric Slaton, supervisor of the FBI Boston Division’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, explained to NBC News.
In either case, the criminals obtain sexually explicit images of children by hacking their phones or convincing them to send photos including their faces by pretending to be just another kid in the next town over. Once they’ve procured the images, they threaten to release the images to family, friends, and/or the general public unless the child complies with certain demands. If the kids don’t pay, the predators may threaten to harm them, their family members, or their loved ones.
“We prosecute a lot of individuals who are, you know, 50-, 60-year-old men pretending to be teenage girls or teenage boys that engage with minor victims as romantic interests,” Slaton told NBC. Unfortunately, in the majority of cases, the schemes originate overseas (mainly Nigeria, India, and the Ivory Coast), and it’s hard to prosecute them.
The horrifying reality is that anyone online, who is active on social media or online gaming platforms, is at risk of sextortion — victims come from every background and every demographic, according to the FBI. However, most often, the victims of sextortion are boys between the ages of 14 and 17.
“The FBI has seen a horrific increase in reports of financial sextortion schemes targeting minor boys — and the fact is that the many victims who are afraid to come forward are not even included in those numbers,” according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Authorities have identified victims as young as 10 years old.
Boys are easier to coerce into sending explicit photos than girls, and coupled with the impulsive teenage brain, it makes them very vulnerable to sextortion. Predators will often pretend to be attractive girls of the same age and develop relationships with the boys on gaming sites and other social media apps where teenagers may feel the most comfortable and safe.
According to a June 2024 report compiled by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and anti-child sexual abuse technology company Thorn, which analyzed the sextortion cases reported to NCMEC between 2020-2023, reports of sextortion increased dramatically after 2022 — up to more than 800 reports a week in the past year. A staggering 90% of reported financial sextortion cases involved male victims aged 14 to 17.
The primary platforms for offenders to initiate contact with victims were Instagram and Snapchat. Instagram was the platform mentioned in 45.1% of reports where the initial contact was identified, followed by Snapchat at 31.6%. Instagram emerged as the platform of choice for both threats and distribution of intimate imagery. Among reports where threats were made, 81.3% involved threats to spread the material on Instagram. When it came to actual dissemination, 60% of reports indicated Instagram was used. While threats also frequently involved YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat, Facebook was the runner-up for actual dissemination, appearing in 33.7% of such reports.
Often a sextortion scheme unravels within a few days, or even a few hours, according to Donald Asper, a supervisory special agent with FBI Philadelphia: “It’s not just a single actor. You’re looking at organizations, you’re looking at people where this is their sole source of income.”
In one tragic case which ended in suicide, the victim received a message around midnight from someone posing as a teenage girl and took his life less than two hours later.
Overwhelmingly, the victims of sextortion feel shame and embarrassment, and it’s this shame and embarrassment that keeps them from telling their parents. Likewise, teenagers who don’t understand that they are the victims may be worried that they’ve broken a law.
In many cases, even when the victim complies with the predator’s request, the predator will still release the images or continue to harass the victim.
“Victims may feel like there is no way out,” notes Wray.
The FBI has received reports of more than a dozen suicides by victims of sextortion.
“The best defense against this crime is to talk to your children about what to do if they’re targeted online. We want everyone to know help is out there and they’re not alone,” Michelle DeLaune, CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, said in a press release.
One of the most important conversations parents should have on this topic is to remind kids to “be selective” about what they share online, and educate them on how easy it is for a criminal to gather information. Dave Frattare, Commander of the ICAC Task Force of the Cuyahoga County, Ohio Prosecutor’s Office in Cleveland urges parents to tell their kids to never send explicit pictures to anybody. Parents should ensure that kids understand that once the images are sent, even over a private messaging app, they have no control over what happens to them after — where they are sent and/or who they can be seen by.
Also, parents should remind kids to be wary of people they meet for the first time online. Parents should talk to kids about how easy it is for someone to “pretend to be anything or anyone online. Videos and photos are not proof that a person is who they claim to be. Images can be altered or stolen.”
Most importantly, parents should tell kids to ask for help. They should know to block the sender, report the messages — but not delete them — and go to a trusted adult. Remind kids that that if they do get caught up in something, it’s OK to ask for help, “no matter what time of day or night it is,” says Frattare.
More information, further resources, and conversation guides are available here.
If your child has gotten caught up in a scheme, there are two important things to remember: one, it’s not your fault; the predator is to blame, and two, help is available.
HSI and the FBI both have resources available to help. Families can contact HSI through its toll-free tip line at 1-866-347-2423 or by completing its online tip form. Families can also contact their local FBI field office, the national office, or report the predator online at tips.fbi.gov.
The NCMEC has outlined a number of steps parents and kids can take if anyone is a victim of sextortion. First, seek help before complying with the predator’s demands. “Cooperating or paying rarely stops the blackmail and continued harassment.” Instead, victims should report and block the predator’s account. However, do not delete the profile or messages, as those can be used to identify and stop the predators.
If explicit images are already posted, families can get help from the NCMEC to remove the images from the Internet or can visit here to learn how to alert companies to the images. Kids who feel like they have no adult to turn to can reach out to NCMEC directly at gethelp@ncmec.org or call NCMEC at 1-800-THE-LOST.
The reality is that most kids today have grown up with the Internet and it can feel like a safe place to these digital natives … but they need to be aware that it’s not. They need to be aware, and they need to know if they do make a mistake that they aren’t alone or at fault — and that help is available.
