Sextortion: What to Know to Protect Kids Online

What Is Sextortion?

Sextortion is when someone threatens to share sexual images or information unless their victim gives them money, more photos, or other favors.

Sextortion can and does happen to kids, tweens or teens. It may occur when someone online tricks or threatens them into sending private images for personal gain or it may happen after the child shares images with a trusted peer that later breaks their trust. It can lead to distress and mental health concerns and even contribute to suicidal thoughts or behaviors.

Where Does Sextortion Happen?

It can start on social media, during online games or through text messages. It often involves a person pretending to be a friend or someone the child or teen can trust. Sextortion offenders may send fake photos to their victims or say they already have a revealing picture of the potential victim.

How Does Sextortion Work?

• Sextortion offenders may ask for money in exchange for keeping their victim’s pictures private.
• They may scare their victims by accusing them of breaking the law to force them to do what they want.
• They want to make the victim feel overwhelmed and helpless.

The goal is that the victim will give in to their threats rather than seek help from authorities.

How Common of a Problem Is Sextortion?

Since 2021, the FBI has reported a tenfold increase in sextortion cases involving kids. Teen boys are often the target of these crimes but girls and children as young as 8 have been targeted.

Studies show clear associations between sextortion and increased depression, self-harm and suicide attempts.

Why Are Teens at Higher Risk for Sextortion?

Teens care about fitting in and have limited experience navigating threats including blackmail. Sextortion offenders often pressure their victims to the point where they feel like they don’t have time to decide what to do. They make it hard for their victims to reach out for help from a trusted adult because of the urgency and shame they try to make their victims feel.

Sextortion offenders often convince their victims that they will be humiliated if their pictures are shared with others. Because it is important to most teens that they’re liked and respected by the people around them, the fear of being humiliated can lead to teens making decisions that are out of character or have serious negative consequences.

How AI Is Making Sextortion Worse

Parents should be aware that advances in technology, especially artificial intelligence (AI), have created additional challenges for children, tweens and teens. Someone targeted by sextortion may have never shared a revealing picture with anyone else, but a fake one may be created by an offender. AI programs make it possible for sextortion offenders to create fake explicit images or videos of victims using just an image of the victim’s face.

What Can Parents Do to Prevent Sextortion?

Parents can reduce the chances that their child is unprepared for this issue by talking about online safety. It is important to have conversations with kids not only about what’s appropriate and inappropriate to share, but how you’ll support them if something goes wrong. Start with a conversation about how sextortion works, how to protect themselves and how you are there to support them. Some key talking points include:

• Sextortion can happen to them. It is a crime and it’s not their fault.
• People online can pretend to be anyone. A stranger reaching out to them may be trying to take advantage of them. Make sure they personally know all of their phone and online contacts and how they should handle requests from people they don’t know.
• Your child can talk to you no matter what.

Tips to Prevent Sextortion:

• Keep social media accounts private.
• Set limits on device use if needed.
• Do not accept friend requests from people you don’t know.
• Have a plan for how you will respond to your child and ways to manage your own fear and frustration. Be available to guide them through the next steps in preventing harm and exploitation.

What if My Child Has Been Targeted?

• Check in with your child about how they are feeling and what you can do to support them. Ask directly if they have been feeling anxious, depressed or having thoughts of suicide.
• Validate their emotions, let them know that you care about them and be with them through this and then problem-solve next steps together.
• Report the offender through the app or platform.
• Block the sender, but do not delete the profile or messages.
• If your child has engaged with someone online and shared private pictures, there is a federal law called TAKE IT DOWN, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has a free service to remove online images.

For additional information on sextortion, visit the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) or Do it for James.org.