Sextortion scams that manipulate teenage boys into sending explicit photos, then blackmail them for money, have "exploded," the Washington Post reports, with incident tips on track to double the already staggering number reported last year. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) says it received around 10,000 tips in 2022. By the end of July this year, the number is already at 12,500. "They're using shame, embarrassment and fear, and they're tapping into that," Lauren Coffren of the NCMEC tells the Post. "They're exploiting children's worst nightmares." The sharp increase (though same cases may be duplicates given multiple ways to report them) spurred the FBI to send out a warning in 2022.
The scams typically begin with a friend request on an app like Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat. After trust is gained, the scammer requests a nude photo that includes the teen's face, then threaten to blast it out to all their contacts on the app. The consequences can be dire. At least 12 victims committed suicide last year after being blackmailed. For parents navigating these nightmare scenarios, social media companies are not moving swift enough. "Instagram needs to own a partial responsibility for this," one victim's parent tells the Post. "We hold our son accountable ... but I still feel like they should care more about trying to protect these kids."
Measures that social media apps have taken include stricter privacy settings for minors, restricting who can message them, and hubs to report harassment. The minimum age for most apps is 13, and a recent study of out Stanford Medicine found that most kids receive their first phone at 11.6. The Post includes resources and steps to take in blackmail cases, which include resisting payments, saving conversations for evidence, and reporting to the FBI. There's also a Take It Down service that helps to scrub content from minors from the internet. (Two men were extradited from Nigeria after a teen took his life over sextortion).
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