CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Students in many middle and high schools will be seeing FBI posters with warnings about crime that can begin on their smartphones, computers, and game consoles.
Sextortion begins when a predator reaches out to a young person over a game, app, or social media account. A predator will deceive and manipulate a child by convincing them to send them an explicit picture or video.
"The goal of our Stop Sextortion campaign is to alert young people to one of the risks that they can encounter online," Supervisory Special Agent Brian Herrick, assistant chief of the FBI's Violent Crime Section, said. "Both youth and caregivers need to understand that a sexual predator can victimize children or teens in their own homes through the devices they use for gaming, homework, and communicating with friends."
Special Agent Kiffa Shirley, in the FBI's Billing Resident Agency in Montana, recently investigated a case where the criminal offered money in exchange for explicit pictures from teens. That man, Tyler Daniel Emineth, was sentenced to 18 years in prison for his crimes.
"These predators are really good at targeting youth," Shirley said. "And many teens feel less inhibited about sharing online."
That sense of trust and comfort allows a criminal to coerce a young person into creating and sending an image, which begins in the cycle of victimization.
FBI Charlotte has received 29 reports of sextortion so far in 2022. In 23 of those reports, the criminals demanded money mostly from male victims.
Parents can do three things to help prevent sextortion:
- Practice different sextortion scenarios with their kids
- Control nighttime internet use
- Control app downloads and be aware of the apps that their children are actually using.
Parents can approve app downloads on their child's phone and turn off the ability to download apps in the first place by removing the App Store.
Bark parental controls can also help by showing an inventory of apps on their phone.
The Stop Sextortion campaign's goal is to inform students of the crime and can help them avoid these situations and ask for help if they are being victimized.
Here are some ways to protect yourself:
- Be selective with what you share on online, especially your personal information and passwords. If your social media accounts are open to everyone, a predator may be able to figure out a lot of information about you and your children.
- Be wary of anyone you encounter for the first time online. Block or ignore messages from strangers.
- Be aware that people can pretend to be anything or anyone online. Videos and photos are not proof that a person is who they claim to be.
- Be suspicious if you meet someone on a game or app and they ask you to start talking to them on different platforms.
- Encourage children to report suspicious behavior to a trusted adult.
This situation is really confusing, and the criminals want the victim to feel unsure or embarrassed to tell someone.
Sextortion is illegal. It's wrong for an adult to ask for, pay for, or demand graphic pictures from a minor.