Sextortion
Overview
Sextortion is a form of child sexual exploitation where children are threatened or blackmailed, most often with the possibility of sharing with the public a nude or sexual images of them, by a person who demands additional sexual content, sexual activity or money from the child. This crime may happen when a child has shared an image with someone they thought they knew or trusted, but in many cases they are targeted by an individual they met online who obtained a sexual image from the child through deceit, coercion, or some other method. In many cases, the blackmailers may have stolen or taken images of another person and they are communicating through a fake account. The blackmailer may have sent images as well.
NCMEC has seen a dramatic increase in sextortion cases being reported to our CyberTipline, especially financial sextortion where the offender demands money from the child. Teenage boys have been the most common targets in these recent cases.
If this has happened to you, it may feel overwhelming or like there is no way out, but there is hope. Know that you are not alone and NCMEC is here to help.
What To Do
If you or a friend have experienced sextortion, there are some steps you can take now to make things better.
- Remember, the blackmailer is to blame, not you. Even if you made a choice you regret, what they are doing is a crime.
Get help before deciding whether to pay money or otherwise comply with the blackmailer. Cooperating or paying rarely stops the blackmail.
REPORT the account via the platform’s safety feature.
- BLOCK the suspect but DO NOT DELETE your profile or messages because that can be helpful in stopping the blackmailer.
- Let NCMEC help get images of you down. Visit MissingKids.org/IsYourExplicitContentOutThere to learn how to notify companies yourself or visit cybertipline.org to report to us for help with the process.
- Visit Take It Down so NCMEC can help you get your explicit images removed from the internet. Having nudes online is scary, but there is hope to get them taken down.
- Ask for help. The problems can be very complex and require help from adults or professionals. If you don’t feel that you have adults in your corner, you can reach out to NCMEC for support at gethelp@ncmec.org or you can call us at 1-800-THE-LOST.
Resources
'The Healthy Relationships' video can help youth identify exploitive or unhealthy behaviors in relationships that are often a part of various kinds of victimizations, such as online enticement, sextortion, and child sex trafficking.
The Healthy Relationships
'I am a Survivor of Sextortion' illustrates some of the strong emotions minors experiencing sextortion go through that prevent them from reaching out for help.
I am a Survivor of Sextortion
'It's called Sextortion' demonstrates how sextortion may occur, identifies some red flags, and emphasizes the importance of peers and friends being upstanders for others.
It's Called Sextortion
Red Flags
Those involved in the sextortion of children often:
- Approach a child on social media after using it to learn about the child’s interests, friends, school, family, etc.
- Move quickly and ask for nudes immediately after following or friending a child on a social media platform.
- Intentionally move their communications with the child from one online platform to another (e.g., moving from social media to private video chat or messaging apps).
These offenders may use tactics to coerce a child, including:
- Reciprocation (“I’ll show you, if you show me”).
- Pretending to work for a modeling agency to obtain sexual images of the child.
- Developing a bond with the child by establishing a friendship/romantic relationship.
- Using multiple false online identities to contact a child.
- Pretending to be younger and/or a member of the opposite sex.
- Accessing the child’s online account without authorization and stealing sexual images or videos of the child.
- Threatening to create sexual images or videos of the child using digital-editing tools.
By the Numbers
In 2023, the CyberTipline received 186,819 reports of online enticement, the category that includes sextortion.
Between 2021 and 2023, the number of online enticement reports increased by 323%.
What NCMEC is Doing About it
NCMEC’s CyberTipline® provides the public and electronic service providers with the ability to report multiple forms of suspected child sexual exploitation, including sextortion and online enticement. After NCMEC’s review is completed, all information in a CyberTipline report is made available to the appropriate law enforcement agency. To make a CyberTipline Report, visit report.cybertip.org.
Is a sexually explicit image of you or your child out there? Learn how to contact the internet service providers and platforms to help mitigate the spread of the image or how NCMEC can help in that process. Visit Is Your Explicit Content Out There? today.
You can also visit Take It Down, a free service that can help you get your explicit images removed from the internet. Having nudes online is scary, but there is hope to get them taken down.
NCMEC’s digital citizenship and safety program, NetSmartz, is an innovative educational program that utilizes games, animated videos, classroom-based lesson plans, activities, and much more to help empower children to make safer choices online.
This program addresses the issue of sextortion in age-appropriate ways. Examples of resources include videos and discussion guides and a poster for educators, school resources officers, counselors and others who work with children to display.
Learn more at MissingKids.org/NetSmartz/Sextortion.
For families with a missing or sexually exploited child, NCMEC provides support services like crisis intervention and local counseling referrals to appropriate professionals. Our Team HOPE program connects families with peers who have had similar experiences and can offer coping skills and compassion.