SEXTORTION – an online pandemic
Paul Litherland
Founder, Surf Online Safe
AMA (WA) Youth Friendly Doctor Workshop speaker
Crimes that were once only experienced by adults are now affecting juveniles in huge numbers. Over the past five years in particular, I’ve noticed a marked increase in the number of teenagers approaching me for assistance with some of the most serious of matters.
Social media and online gaming have advanced exponentially since 2010. The rise in juveniles using such networks has risen even more rapidly, with a significant increase in the number of online offenders (individuals or part of a syndicate) doing the same. They are now targeting children in much higher numbers, and quite often becoming more successful, for one main reason – teens will not report the activity in as high numbers as adults!
One of the most concerning and widespread crimes being experienced by juveniles in more recent times is sextortion – an offence in which I have personally identified a 2300% rise since 2022.
Case study 1: ALEX
Case study 2: JAMES
If you had told me 12 years ago, when I worked at Tech Crime, that I’d be speaking today with Australian children about sextortion, I never would have believed you.
Sadly, this is one of the most common matters being self-reported to me by Australian teenagers (especially boys). Such self-generated content now makes up a considerable percentage of all current child sexual abuse material on the internet.
Risk of exposure to such harms increases significantly in homes where parents may not be present, or where restrictions are not in place. Poorly designed gaming and social networking environments, which almost encourage children to interact with strangers without appropriate moderation, are setting up our kids to get caught out.
When we add to this mix the online offenders who are very good at grooming or manipulating children, while normalising inappropriate interactions, the number of victims can only increase.
ONLINE GAMING
Although online games have been around for more than 20 years, what has changed significantly is the number of juveniles, especially pre-teens, being drawn to gaming networks. The vast majority of online games have public chat environments, with many games offering zero chat control or filtering options. NBA2K Mobile (basketball game for mobile devices) for example, has a chat feature allowing users to message each other directly, which cannot be deactivated or even filtered. This is a game rated 4+ on the Apple Store!
To see exactly how many children are interacting with strangers in these environments, you can simply download the top 10 online games in Australia and create an account with a juvenile date of birth. You will see first-hand the amount of information being shared by kids, and how easy it can be to identify their age and location.
When discussing this with parents and reflecting on how easy it is for online offenders to do the same, it’s so difficult for me to find the balance between trying to educate, without scaring them. This is my hardest battle in any presentation I conduct!
SOCIAL NETWORKING
In addition to gaming, social networking has opened up juveniles to a massive world of engagement and interaction. While these amazing environments of shared experiences and fun are a great way to engage with friends and family, they have also opened the door to some of the most severe harms.
To a degree, gaming does have more levels of assistance and moderation; however social networking has failed utterly in putting methods in place to minimise risk to users. This lack of true accountability for ethical design has contributed significantly to children becoming the victims of online crime.
As a result of this lack of true assistance from the networks, the parents, educators, and even kids themselves, have been left to clean up the mess.
“ If you had told me 12 years ago, when I was working at Tech Crime, that I’d be speaking today with Australian children about sextortion, I never would have believed you. Sadly, this is one of the most common matters being self-reported to me by Australian teenagers (especially boys).
Surf online – but STAY SAFE
Here are some suggestions to keep our kids away from such horrible experiences.
Conversations
Talking to your kids about these types of risk can be confronting or embarrassing. But they need to be had and can be done at varying levels, depending on their age.
Let them know they can come to you if something goes wrong. Get to know what gaming apps or social platforms they are using; then sit down with them to run through how it works. Let them teach you!
Stranger danger
In most incidents, sextortion will be carried out by a ‘random’ who has made contact with the victim – this can come out of the blue or via a ‘friend of a friend’ through a social networking app. It’s important to be sure the people our children are interacting with are known to them physically.
Offenders often send connection requests to those with high numbers of online friends or followers, as these users will tend to accept a random more readily. And if that offender does the same with 10 others in a victim’s online network, the victim is more likely to accept that friend request – seeing the mutual contacts in the offender’s account. If you’re not sure who they are, investigate!
“ Get to know what gaming apps or social platforms your kids are using; then sit down with them to run through how it works. Let them know they can come to you if something goes wrong.
Monitor payments
If a child has a prepaid card, make sure you check what they are paying for. All their apps and games will provide purchase history. Kids may delete this information, so it’s important to put rules in place to minimise this happening.
Third-party sites are a massive risk, often taking money from a card and not providing what was promised – ripping millions of dollars off kids all over the globe.
It’s extremely important to research any and all sites external to the registered website of the game, or any site outside of the PlayStation or X-Box networks.
Never pay them
Scammers will promise to delete or remove the embarrassing content as long as you pay them first. In my extensive experience, if a victim does pay money, things will get worse. Most scammers will have multiple victims on the go at any given time.
If a victim does not make payment and cuts off contact as early as possible, the offender will usually cease contact and move on to their next victim. They will not act on sharing content, and that’s where most attempts end.
But once they know a victim is willing to pay, they will lock down on that person and continue with threats to act on their vulnerabilities or fears. At first, content will be sent to only a couple of the victim’s friends; and then another payment is demanded under threat of sharing to more people. Thus, the vicious cycle continues.
Lock down and get offline
If someone does become a victim of sextortion, it’s important to lock down and get offline as early as possible. This can be worrying for many teens, because many will not want to delete accounts and have to start over again. But most social apps allow an account suspension option. Locking down accounts will make it harder for offenders to identify a victim’s online family or peer network, and this minimises the chances of contact by the offender. It will also lead the offender to assume a victim has deleted their accounts. Instead of wasting their time chasing a victim who might be difficult to find, the offender will tend to move on to the next victim. So, locking down in the first instance assists greatly in minimising future contact.
Don’t panic, don’t judge
If your child has been caught out in a sextortion incident, there’s nothing wrong with them! Online offenders are good at what they do, and many of them know exactly how to manipulate a child to take risks they would never have thought of taking in the real world.
The internet has opened the world to the modern juvenile, and the ability for them to explore their own feelings and curiosities is at their fingertips – making them vulnerable to the people out there waiting to take advantage of this.
In the sextortion case study 1 (see page 32), “Alex” is a student at one of my schools. I’ve been speaking to his cohort since he was 11 years old. A year before he rang me for help, I spoke to his year group about sextortion and shared a case I had worked on recently. When he rang me for help, he apologised to me for “not listening to what you were warning us about!”. He was utterly ashamed and blaming himself completely for what had occurred. He was terrified his video would be shared.
Alex was the victim of crime. He was taken advantage of by someone well versed in manipulation. He fell into a trap that any teen could fall into. As parents, it’s important to slow down and respond appropriately. Offer support and get the help you need in order to minimise the impact.
Always remain vigilant
Sextortion does not solely include requests for money, gift cards or cryptocurrency. If a victim has been coerced to share an intimate image, many offenders will extort further sexual images or videos from them. Ensure devices are never in bathrooms or bedrooms – if they are, we must take action to ensure very strict rules and restrictions are put in place.
Report, report, report
Report through the network: The large number of people using social networking compared to the small number of people moderating is something that needs to continually be addressed at a global level. However, the lack of response we often get when reporting issues through social networking should not deter us from reporting those accounts which are causing the greatest of harm. It’s important to report not just once or twice, but a number of times. If a victim can confide in family and friends, they can work as a team to report through the network where the offender was working. Multiple reports over a short period of time significantly increases the chances of a moderator identifying the offender and kicking them off the network.
The police via the Australian Cyber Security Centre (cyber.gov.au): Provide as much detail as you can about what has happened. You will be provided with a report number, and the matter will be forwarded to the policing district closest to your home.
The Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (accce.gov.au): They will assist by offering support and guidance to the victim and parents.
The eSafety Commission (esafety.gov.au): They offer some great resources and advice regarding online crime. They have a front-door approach to the networks and will assist victims in getting content removed or getting offenders kicked off the apps. They can impose hefty fines for organisations who do not remove harmful content within a reasonable amount of time.