Notice – the following story is a dummy case shared by the FBI about sexual extortion.
Tammy, whose name was changed for privacy, was home alone for a few hours. She had plans to meet up with a friend after her mom got home from work. The door to her house was locked. The alarm system was on.
Tammy did what most 13-year-olds do when they have free time: She got on her phone.
Soon after, she’d been targeted, groomed, and exploited by an online predator.
In messages to Tammy, the man threatened to send pictures and spread rumors about her to her friends. He said he would hunt down and kill her mom and come to her house to hurt her, too. Using these threats, he demanded that she stay on a video connection with him and perform a series of increasingly graphic acts on camera.
This is just one dummy case (shared by the FBI) that ended in Sextortion. Kids, teens, and adults are being attacked via the internet, sometimes by individuals, sometimes by organized groups.
The FBI has seen a significant increase in the number of cases involving children and teens being threatened and coerced into sending explicit images online—a crime called sextortion.
This is becoming a common practice (see the following chart) (Source: Thorn report).
The power of modern technologies (Internet, cameras, social networks, and the like) is immense to do good but also to do harm; the solution must be a combination of enforcement (by authorities and platforms), and awareness by parents and users. And here, we are doing our share to INCREASE AWARENESS.
See more about sextortion:
# FBI site on Sextortion Sextortion (Source: FBI)
# Podcast: FBI on sextortion (Source: FBI)
# The case of Braden Markus, who died because of Sextortion (Source: The Braden Markus Foundation)
