The CEO of Cambridge-based Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) appeared on the BBCs Crimewatch recently to warn parents and teens about the growing numbers of children being targeted by sexual extortion gangs - commonly known as ‘sextortion’.
Sextortion is a crime that involves adults coercing children and teens into sending explicit images online and it’s on the rise across the USA, Australia, UK and Europe. The organised cybercriminals are targeting mostly young boys aged between 10-18, but girls are targeted too. IWF analysts say that 60 per cent of the reports involved boys aged 16 and 17.
The criminals pose as teen girls and young women - and use gaming platforms such as Discord, but more usually social media platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, to target their victims. The tactic is to be friendly, flirty and then demand payment after getting the photos and videos. They use the follower list as a blackmail device - “we will send these pictures to your followers” - and repeatedly demand money. Paying up once is never enough.
Hundreds of thousands are thought to be victims. The nature of this crime means there is mass underreporting. Figures and research from the Network Contagion Research Institute estimate that in the USA the number of reported cases in 2024 will be 50,000. For every 1,000 targeted, it is estimated that one victim will die by suicide.
The FBI says more than 20 children have died by suicide in the USA directly because of the relentless blackmail. These are professional con artists playing mind games with young kids.
An inquest in the death of 16-year-old Dinal De Alwis was held last month in South London. Dinal had killed himself after someone, thought to be in Nigeria (the cybercriminals there are known as Yahoo boys), threatened to share two photos of him over Snapchat.
As IWF CEO Susie Hargreaves OBE said: “The devastation that sexual extortion can cause cannot be overstated, and it is heartbreaking to see the number of cases continuing to rise.”
What can parents do? The target age of these victims is significant. As a mum of an older teen boy I know us parents are less likely to be keeping an eye on their social media activity. You’re keen to give them some privacy, both IRL (in real life) and their online life. It’s entirely normal for boys this age to be out and about and for us to feel less involved in their day-to-day lives. I did tell my son about this scam, using the opener “have you heard?” rather than “don’t fall for this”. Guess what? Not only had he heard but he knew someone who’d been a victim.
Our kids aren’t idiots - they already know they shouldn’t be sending explicit photos of themselves to anyone. It doesn’t hurt to tell them that organised crime gangs are using this as leverage to get money.
The next thing to tell our children is if this happens, they can talk to you about it and they will not be in trouble. They will already know they’ve been conned and feel ashamed: they now need to know they won’t be in worse trouble with their parents. Tell them to never pay and that help is available. Let them know they are a victim of a crime and police take it seriously.
Other safety tips include no phones or laptops in bedrooms or bathrooms. No phones overnight (get an old school alarm clock?). I have made regular checks as a condition of owning a phone for my younger children.
TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat cannot be relied on to improve their safety measures to protect children. They are pushing ahead with end-to-end encryption which arguably makes this crime even harder to detect. The best defence we have is education.
The website childrescuecoalition.org has loads of tips for parents and includes this testimony: “These gangs of criminals are thorough and calculated. They meticulously planned every detail of this crime to gain my trust, then use that against me. I want to raise awareness of the crime of sextortion, and encourage others to educate themselves on the subject.”
This boy was able to talk to the police after a terrifying attempt to blackmail him. The more everyone knows about this scam, the less power the gangs have.
Read more Parenting Truths from Emilie Silverwood-Cope every month in the Cambridge Independent.
