A hooded man representing a cyber criminal.
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Federal law enforcement officers are cracking down on a scheme that goals to extort sexual imagery from children and teenagers after a dramatic increase in incidents over the past 12 months.
Sexual predators are threatening, blackmailing or enticing minors through “sextortion,” a portmanteau of “sex” and “extortion,” through which they demand sexually explicit content or money from a baby against their will, in keeping with a Justice Department advisory released Tuesday. Victims as young as 10 years old have been targeted.
Over 3,000 minors were targeted within the U.S. over the past 12 months, the DOJ said.
The crime is a subset of online enticement, which spiked 98% from 2019 to 2020, in keeping with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The NCMEC, in partnership with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the Philadelphia Department of Homeland Security Investigations and the FBI’s Pittsburgh office, issued a public safety alert about sextortion on Tuesday.
“These criminals have grow to be excellent at luring in and extorting young children,” Mike Nordwall, FBI Pittsburgh special agent in charge, said in a press release. “They fight to cover behind the anonymity of the web, however the FBI shouldn’t be going to allow them to prey on our kids.”
Sextortion is prevalent online, where predators often pose as children or teens to achieve the trust of their victims before coaxing them into sharing sexual content, similar to photos or videos, in keeping with federal officials. Predators will even lie about having sexual imagery to extort victims for more content, money or gift cards under the specter of releasing the pictures, in keeping with the alert.
Sometimes, a predator shares imagery no matter whether a victim meets payment demands, in keeping with federal officials. The toll on the victim can result in shame, fear, confusion and, in some cases, suicidal thoughts. Amanda Todd, the topic of a recent documentary on sextortion and a goal of the practice when she was only 13, died by suicide two years later.
In case you or someone is in crisis, please call the national suicide prevention lifeline at 988.
Law enforcement officials say prevention is one of the best weapon against sextortion. The NCMEC provides resources for caregivers and educators on the crime. The sextortion cycle generally ends when a victim tells an adult or the offender is discovered by law enforcement.
“It’s vitally essential to offer parents and caregivers the knowledge they need to stop this crime before it happens and to assist victims come forward if it does,” U.S. Attorney Cindy K. Chung said in a press release. “We’ll proceed to partner with federal, state and native law enforcement to guard children from sexual exploitation in all its despicable forms.”
