The Educator Magazine U.K. May-August issue - Magazine - Page 50
Protecting
young people
from sexual
extortion -
‘SEXTORTION’
- what schools
can do
Mubina Asaria, is Safeguarding
Consultant at ed-tech charity LGfL
- The National Grid for Learning.
Cases of sexual extortion, sometimes
referred to as ‘sextortion’ - where
intimate, naked or sexual photos or
videos are used to blackmail or extort
money or further images from the
victim – are increasing at an alarming
rate. The perpetrators can range from
a child or young person’s peers or
partners from previous relationships,
to highly organised international crime
gangs working on larger scale financial
extortion involving thousands of victims
worldwide. We need to ensure that
our young people are aware of these
dangers and equipped with the tools to
protect themselves.
It can take as little as one hour from
initial contact, for victims to be coerced
into sharing images and the first
demands to be made. The impact can
be catastrophic. These kinds of online
sexual harms can not only impact a
person’s wellbeing, mental and physical
health, but have in some cases led to
young victims taking their own lives.
In 2024, the National Crime Agency's
(NCA’s) Child Exploitation and Online
Protection Command (CEOP) Safety
Centre, received 380 reports of
'sextortion'; and police forces received
an average of 117 reports from under
18's during each of the first five months
of 2024. According to statistics from
the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) ,
the majority (91%) of these crimes are
against boys aged 14-17. Considering
that these types of offences are
generally underreported, the actual
figure is likely to be far higher.
to chat or text privately, before
suggesting exchanging semi-nude or
naked photos or video. Once the victim
has sent the images, the flirting stops,
and threats and demands begin.
In situations where the sexual extortion
is perpetrated by a stranger online, the
victim is usually befriended via social
media and messaging platforms such
as Instagram, Snapchat and Reddit, or
through gaming sites, although this can
happen on any messaging system, ‘safe’
or otherwise. Using fake profiles, they
chat and rapidly build an online
friendship, finding common likes and
connections, and encourage the victim
Evidence gathered by the IWF indicates
an increase in the use of generative AI
to generate fake and deep-fake imagery
from innocent, non-explicit images,
using ‘nudifying’ apps to facilitate
online abuse and sextortion. These
images are then used to extort money
from the victim, or blackmail them into
sending intimate images of themselves,
in order to stop the deepfake images
being circulated on social media.
Childline’s briefing on Young people’s
experiences of online sexual extortion
or ‘sextortion’ (Sept 2024) reported that
‘counselling sessions with boys mainly
revolved around financial blackmail,
whereas girls typically spoke about
being pressured to send more nude or
semi-nude images rather than money’.
