U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer calls on DOJ to track ‘sextortion’

A California senator is calling on the Department of Justice to identify the scope of sexual extortion, a crime in which victims are coerced into sending nude photos of themselves after their computers are compromised.

“In what is often referred to as sextortion, attackers use compromising information, usually in the form of sexually explicit images or videos, to force victims to engage in sexual activity online,” wrote Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch.

The authors found nearly 80 cases of sexual extortion and more than 3,000 victims in court records and news reports.

“Some criminals have hacked into victims' computers, secretly recorded explicit videos of them, and then threatened to post the footage on social media if the victims do not agree to send additional sexual material,” Boxer wrote.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that teen, referred to as Zac, grabbed his father’s gun, put it to his head and pulled the trigger.

While her organization focuses primarily on privacy research, Dixon said that she’s increasingly been fielding calls on the crime from desperate people, including parents of child victims, seeking help.