Widespread of sextortion across the internet targeted at children is a wake up call to protect children from social media users pretending to be their friends. Children are highly vulnerable to the tactics of these users, they will pretend to be friend and asking friendly questions to make their potential victims to feel very much at home, next they do is to request for nudes of the young man, pretending to be a lady, so that they can use it to extort money from them while blackmailing them of sharing it across social media, the fear of seeing his nudes online will push him to yield to the demands of these users, sometimes they even place these perpetrators in payroll
Children, now rely on technology to do most of their school and social activities, even developing skills. When they play into the hands of these scammers pretending to be a female friend, due to threat that comes with such despicable moment, mental health will be attacked and could lead to suicide. Sextortion recorded an increase of 98% in North Wales with 349 cases reported between Sept 2022 and Sept 2023. It is a cause for alarm that family as a whole need to be on alert to implore every tool necessary to protect children from falling into hole dug by these scammers.
Teenage boys are the targeted victims, they create fake online account in the disguise of a young girl to obtain their nudes as a leverage to extort money from the victim. Sometimes due the shame and embarrassment that engulfed them, it will make it harder to open up or talk to anyone about the incident and would rather pay the scammers to temporary keep them mute. It was reported on BBC in 2015, a teenager in Northern Ireland took his own life hours after scammers sent intimate images to his friend, a Romanian was later imprisoned for four years, a specialist cyber crime unit had traced the computer he used to blackmail the teenager. The traumatic experience is pushing victims farther into doing horrible things.
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Governments around the world have warned about the threats posed by sextortion to young people. Instagram in making statement as part of the measure to curb sextortion will start blurring naked images in direct messages, it will be turned on by default for under-18s. Two Nigerian men pleaded guilty to sexually extorting teenage boy and young men in the US, of which one took his own life. Which also linked to suicide of a teenager in Australia. WhatsApp has also reduced its minimum age in the UK and Europe from 16 to 13, and this measure has been applied in the majority of countries across the globe.
The wave of the crime call for immediate alacrity to create awareness educating children and parents on ways to prevent and imploring safety in using social media. Often posed economic loss and consistent bullying by the scammers to continue to extort innocent victims. Continuous communication between parents and children are key factors into letting each other know any foul play or any stranger making an attempt to intrude, and authorities can help to avert the crime and bring perpetrators to book. It sends a signal that kids shouldn’t be left alone navigating the social media considering the hostile atmosphere.
Parents and children shouldn’t bury their heads in shame when this incident occurs, they need to pick the pieces of their broken selves and continue to acquire education to grow, with that they can get enlighten about this crime. When these scammers attack kids, parents will feel that they have let their kids down, for not being there for them, there couldn’t be more embarrassing moment to see your teenage kids nudes in a public space, it is hugely traumatising. For the kids, they will be overwhelm with guilt and self-doubt. Parents and children should always leave the conversation open to help get quipped and fight sextortion.
