Sextortion
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s CyberTipline receives reports regarding suspected crimes of sexual exploitation committed against children. Recently, a growing number of reports concern incidents of “sextortion”. Sextortion is a relatively new form of online sexual exploitation in which non-physical forms of coercion are utilized, such as blackmail, to acquire sexual content (photos/videos) of the child, obtain money from the child or engage in sex with the child.
To review this form of sexual victimization in greater depth, NCMEC analyzed a subset of sextortion-related CyberTipline reports received between October 2013 through June 2015 (n=801) and found the following results concerning the child victims, the individuals submitting the CyberTipline report, and the behavior of the reported offenders:
Public Service Announcement
In this series of PSAs made in collaboration with the Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, you’ll see how a teen was blackmailed into sending more and more explicit images and video to someone online who she thought she knew.
Who are the child victims?
- 78% of the incidents involved female children and 12% involved male children (In 10% of incidents, child gender could not be determined);
- The average age at the time of the incident was approximately 15 years old, despite a wider age-range for female children (8-17 years old) compared to male children (11-17 years old); and
- In 22% of the reports, the reporter mentioned being suspicious of, or knowing that, multiple children were targeted by the same offender.
Who are making the reports to the CyberTipline?
- Of the various reporter types, Internet company-reports (32%), self-reports (27%) and parent/guardian-reports (22%) were the most common. Other reporter types included peers (e.g. friends, romantic partners; 6%), authority figures (e.g. police, teachers; 5%) and online strangers to the child (2%).
- There were important differences in reporter types based on children’s gender and age:
- While male children were significantly more likely than female children to self-report and to have parent/guardian-reports, female children were significantly more likely than male children to have peer- and Internet company-reports. Authority figures and strangers were equally likely to report for male and female children.
- While self- and Internet company-reports were more likely among older children, parent/guardian- and stranger-reports were more likely among younger children. Peer-reports were equally likely among older and younger children.
Why, where, when and how is sextortion occurring?
Why?
- Based on the information known by the CyberTipline reporter, sextortion appears to have occurred with one of three primary objectives (In 12% of reports, the objective could not be determined):
- To acquire additional, and often increasingly more explicit, sexual content (photos/videos) of the child (76%)
- To obtain money from the child (6%)
- To have sex with the child (6%)
Where?
- Sextortion most commonly occurred via phone/tablet messaging apps, social networking sites, and during video chats.
- In 41% of reports, it was suspected or known that multiple online platforms were involved in facilitating communication between the offender and child. These reports seemed to indicate a pattern whereby the offender would intentionally and systematically move the communication with the child from one online platform type to another.
- Commonly, the offender would approach the child on a social networking site and then attempt to move the communication to anonymous messaging apps or video chats where he/she would obtain sexually explicit content from the child. The child would then be threatened to have this content posted online, particularly on social media sites where their family and friends would see, if the child did not do what the offender wanted.
When?
- In 34% of incidents, there was enough information to determine whether sextortion occurred immediately after the offender received content of the child or whether it was delayed. Of these cases in which it was known, most (85%) incidents occurred immediately after the offender obtained sexually explicit content of the child.
- However, in 15% of these incidents in which there was enough information to determine, the sextortion was delayed up to several years after the offender acquired the sexually explicit material.
How?
- Many different manipulation tactics were used by offenders, often in combination, to acquire sexual content (images and/or videos) of the child, obtain money from the child or have sex with the child. The most common tactics were:
- Threatening to post previously acquired sexual content online (71%); and
- Threatening to post previously acquired sexual content online specifically for family and friends to see (29%).
- Some other tactics include:
- Reciprocation, whereby the offender coerced the child into providing sexual content by promising reciprocity
- Developing a bond with the child through flattery and praise
- Secretly recording sexually explicit videos of the child during video chats
- Using multiple online identities against a given child, such as being the person blackmailing for sexual content as well as pretending to be a supportive friend to the child or a sympathetic victim of the same offender
- Pretending to be younger and/or a female
- Threatening to physically hurt or sexually assault the child or their family
- Threatening to create sexual content of the child using digital-editing tools
- Accessing the child’s account without authorization and stealing sexual content of the child
- Threatening to commit suicide if the child does not provide sexual content
- Creating a fake profile as the child and posting sexual content of the child
- Pretending to be a modeling agent to obtain sexual content of the child
- Threatening to post sexually explicit conversations with the child online
What are the effects of sextortion?
- In 18% of CyberTipline sextortion reports, it was indicated that the child victim had experienced a negative outcome as the result of the victimization, such as hopelessness, fear, anxiety and depression. In 28% of these reports with negative outcomes (5% of all sextortion reports), the child had engaged in self-harm, had been suicidal, or had attempted suicide as a result of the victimization.
- There was no difference between male and female children in negative outcomes of sextortion, or how commonly they were indicated in the CyberTipline reports.
- In reports that indicated that the child had experienced a negative outcome, it was common that concern was expressed for other potential victims of sextortion; caring about others and wanting to prevent others from the same victimization was a common reason for making a report.
For more information, visit our website at www.missingkids.org or contact us at 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678).
