Lifestyle
Sextortion: Why Parents Need To Talk To Teens About This Online Danger
The dangers that lurk online are never-ending, and for young people, it’s more dangerous than ever to be online. Not only are younger people at higher risk of getting scammed online, but unethical companies also harvest sensitive data to sell to advertisers. Sometimes this data is bought by scammers who figure out a way to target young people. But more recently, a new and deadlier scam has been targeting teenagers, making them vulnerable to the point of taking their own lives. This scam is known as sextortion.
It works mostly on social media apps like Snapchat, Instagram or TikTok. A teenager is targeted by a bad player who creates an account that seems legitimate. They impersonate a teenager’s friends from their school or social circles and form friendships. Eventually, this graduates into flirtation, and the teens are then convinced to send sexually explicit images of themselves. To make it seem like a legitimate flirtation, they use AI or find nude images online that they alter to make them look like they belong to the owner of the account. Once the teenager responds with explicit messages of their own, the messages then become a front for extortion.
Sometimes, the teens don’t have to send nudes or explicit images of themselves. But with deepfake apps, these scammers can use a teen’s likeness to create graphic images that they use for blackmail. They tell the teens that their images will be published or sent to their friends, classmates, or school staff unless they pay exorbitant amounts of money.
The growing crisis of sextortion
In the beginning, most of these blackmailers would target young women. They’d use social media or community forums to target girls. When young women were the main targets, they would be mostly targeted to provide child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The predators would profiteer from this later by distributing CSAM. However, predators started targeting teens themselves for their money and started going after young men especially.
Predators targeting teens online are extremely aggressive. They start friendly and having lined social data about their victims, they find all the weak spots. Once the teen sends their nudes, the predators start threatening to send the images and screen grabs of the chat to a parent, a coach, or a romantic partner. In most instances, teens don’t reach out for help. They send the money they’re being asked for, usually a small amount they can afford at first. The blackmailers then escalate, threatening to send the images to a coach, a teacher, a school principal, or a boss.
In unfortunate cases, this leads to suicide. Victims feel like they have no way out and their lives have been ruined forever. In such instances, the victims are usually kids who appear to have a bright future or come from a strict or religious family. The risk of jeopardising their futures is too difficult to bear and the blackmailers even goad them into taking their own lives.
In April 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation along with Nigerian authorities arrested two individuals in Nigeria who were responsible for blackmailing teens in the US who eventually took their lives. The threat is global and predators anywhere in the world can target teens no matter where they’re from.
How can parents deal with sextortion?
Parents in the US are suing Meta and other social media companies to ensure they enforce better safety features. However, social media safety features aren’t enough to protect unsuspecting people from being scammed. Social media safety features help victims report scammers, delete their message histories, and also prevent the sharing of CSAM across the platform.
The most effective thing parents can do to prevent sextortion is to make sure teens are aware of it. When chatting with their peers, they should avoid sharing explicit photos of themselves. They should also not indulge in flirting unless they’ve met those people in person and can confirm that they’re fellow teenagers.
Teens also need to practise more restraint when following other accounts. Just because they seem to have a few posts showing their high school lives doesn’t mean they are in high school. Tell your teen to search that individual’s other social media accounts to confirm they have a verifiable life. If they reached out to you because they’re the friend of a friend, they should speak to that mutual before accepting a DM request. In addition, they can also use reverse image search to check if the images on an account are legitimate or taken from someone else’s social media.
What your teens should do when they’re targeted
- If the predators still pass such checks, the moment they demand money or nude images, your teens should feel safe coming to you for assistance. Adult caregivers should never make vulnerable teens feel shamed for getting targeted.
- Your teens should also stop all communication with the predator. Pleading to be left alone never works.
- They should also not delete their chats to retain proof when the predators are reported to the authorities. Tell your teen to change their account to private to prevent other blackmailers from targeting them.
- Use the Take it Down website- NCMEC.org to remove any nude or risky images from the internet.
- Report any payments with credit or debit cards to banks to reverse transactions as soon as possible.
- Use THORN to get more assistance like counselling.
What are social media platforms doing
Meta recently announced that they shut down over 60,000 Nigerian accounts linked to extortion on the platform. This also included Facebook groups where scammers shared scripts, photos, and guides on how to extract as much money as possible from victims.
However, this doesn’t help when the individual targeting a teen could be a friend of the family or a vindictive ex. Social media platforms need to get more robust report response measures to ensure the safety of teen users online.
Apps like Discord and Telegram don’t have as robust reporting features as public ad-based platforms like Meta. In such instances, it’s safer for parents to exercise precautions if their teens are using them.
The most important thing is for teens to reach out to safe adults whenever they receive suspicious messages. There are resources to help them get out of such situations with minimal harm. Parents also need to remain vigilant and make sure their kids are safe even in chatrooms in Roblox, Minecraft, or other games. At the very least, parents need to remind their children they can always be targeted, even from the safety of their homes.
Check out:
Relationships: Conversations Every Parent Should Have With Their Children
How To Protect Your Children Online
Grooming: What Parents And Guardians Should Know And What Should Be Done To Protect Children
Children And Trauma: How To Help
Digital Safety: What To Do If You Think Your Child Is Being Radicalised Online
How To Protect Your Children From Traumatic News And Content