The FBI Dallas Field Office has issued a warning to parents and caregivers about increasing nationwide incidents involving teens getting caught in “sextortion” schemes via the internet.
“Last month, [sextortion] started becoming a thing we really wanted to push a little bit more into public awareness because field offices across the country are [seeing an] increase in this type of a criminal violation,” FBI Dallas Public Affairs Officer Melinda Urbina told The Dallas Express.
Urbina said the FBI is receiving an increasing number of reports of adults posing as adolescents on social media and online gaming platforms, coercing children to produce sexual images and videos, and then extorting money from them.
According to the FBI, sextortion is a relatively new scheme in which an adult offender disguises themselves, usually as a young female, and initiates contact with a minor, usually a young male between 14 and 17, through an online platform (social media accounts, games, or apps).
The predator then persuades the teenage boy to engage in explicit behavior and secretly records the video. Once they have the video, they reveal that they have recorded the act and attempt to extort money from the victim in exchange for an agreement that the content will not be posted online or sent to the minor’s friends and family.
Sextortion is a punishable offense. It is illegal for an adult to request, pay for, or demand graphic images from a minor, also known as Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM). Offenders convicted face sentences of up to life in prison.
Urbina said that parents and caregivers must add the word “sexploitation” into their lexicons and be vigilant in making reports to the FBI, even for things that may seem inconsequential.
“You need to know and understand what your children are doing online,” she said. “There’s another method of how somebody is getting through those protective measures that you’re already hopefully taking.”
While Dallas has seen the trend grow like most of the country, she said that Washington D.C. and Arkansas had seen exceedingly high instances of these sex-related crimes.
The FBI shares that parents and guardians must encourage their children to be aware of the signs of sextortion and report any potentially criminal behavior to stop the victimization.
According to the FBI, cases go unreported because of the minor’s embarrassment, fear of the criminal’s repercussions, or the expected adverse reaction from their parents, guardians, or law enforcement. Sextortion offenders may have hundreds of victims worldwide, and reporting the crime to law enforcement may save the lives of many more.
Over 18,000 sextortion-related complaints were received by the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) in 2021, with total losses exceeding $13.6 million.
FBI Dallas Special Agent in Charge Mathew J. DeSarno said sextortion predators use a variety of schemes, hiding behind lies, manipulation, and anonymity to interact with children.
“They could be disguised as a peer using a fake identity on a young person’s social media or gaming sites, or through the devices they use for gaming, homework, and communicating with friends,” he said. “The FBI uses every tool possible to catch these dangerous individuals, but we need responsible adults to help us report suspicious online behavior and educate children and teens about safe online media usage.”
The FBI offers the following online safety tips for parents, children, and teenagers:
Be cautious about what you share online, mainly personal information and passwords. If your social media accounts are open to the public, a predator may be able to learn a lot about you or your children.
Be wary of anyone you encounter for the first time online. Block or ignore messages from strangers.
Be aware that people can pretend to be anything or anyone online. Videos and photos are not proof that a person is who they claim to be.
Be suspicious if you meet someone on a game or app and they ask you to start talking to them on a different platform.
Encourage children and teens to report suspicious behavior to a trusted adult.
If you believe you or someone you know has been a victim of sextortion, please follow these steps:
Contact your local FBI field office, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov, or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (1-800-the-lost or Cybertipline.org).
Don’t delete anything before law enforcement can review it.
Tell law enforcement everything about the encounters you had online; it may be uncomfortable, but it is necessary to find the offender.
More information and multimedia resources about sextortion can be found on the FBI Sextortion Awareness Campaign website or its Sextortion Informational page.
The FBI’s partner at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has step-by-step instructions on removing explicit content from more than a dozen online platforms.