A new analysis from the Canadian Center for Child Protection suggests a sharp rise in sextortion crimes targeting young people, with the majority of victims being teenagers.
The Winnipeg-based agency says it opened 322 cases in July, down from 85 in July 2021 and just 15 in July 2019.
Of those 322 cases last month, 92% were boys or young men.
In the past, the center mainly saw cases of girls and young women extorted for compromising photos, but that has changed, Stephen Sauer, director of Cybertip.ca told CCCP.
“The difference is that for young girls, what we see is often individuals have a sexual interest in girls, and so they’re looking to get more pictures, to get videos of them to fuel this sexual interest,” he said. .
“In this case with boys, the difference is that these individuals really don’t have that sexual interest, but they have the drive to make money.”
In many of these cases, perpetrators manipulate teenage boys into extorting money, often posing as a young woman on social media platforms such as Snapchat or Instagram, it said. -he declares.
“Realizing that young people, especially boys of this age, are vulnerable to manipulative tactics to get them to engage in sexual acts online…biologically, they basically move to quickly comply with these kinds of demands,” did he declare.
“There’s a lot of shame associated with that, so they’ll also comply with the payment to hopefully mitigate the distribution of that image or video.”
This is something Derek Lints knows all too well. Her son, Daniel, a rural Manitoba teenager who was an athlete and hardworking student, killed himself in February after being sexually exploited online.
In an email Thursday, Lints said he would like to see governments step in and impose more regulations on tech companies.
LISTEN | The parents of Daniel Lints, a 17-year-old victim of sexual exploitation, speak to The stream:
The stream27:01A Manitoba teenager has committed suicide after being sexually extorted online. His parents want other families to know the risks
Daniel Lints was a 17-year-old Manitoba boy who was blackmailed after being coerced into sharing an explicit image of himself with someone online. Shortly after, Daniel committed suicide. Guest host Duncan McCue talks to Daniel’s parents about what they want the other families to know; and discusses the risk of online sextortion with Signy Arnason, Associate Executive Director of the Canadian Center for Child Protection.
Police issue warnings
The increase in such crimes has prompted police departments around the world to issue urgent warnings about sextortion involving boys and young men.
The Nova Scotia RCMP issued one such warning in late July after seeing a large number of reports of money-motivated sextortion where boys and girls are targeted.
The RCMP used to mainly see sextortion cases involving girls and women, but that has changed recently, said Nova Scotia RCMP Corporal Chris Marshall.
“I think that’s what scammers potentially see is that this type of scam, not only does it often work with young girls and young women, but it also works with young men and with boys “, he said.
It’s understandable that people feel uncomfortable coming forward, but they need to realize they’ve been the victim of a crime and it needs to be reported as soon as possible, he said. .
“You have to realize that someone is taking advantage of you and that’s not right,” he said.
His advice?
“It would just be that if you were a victim of it, it would be to immediately cease all contact and contact your local police.”
Youth perspective
Part of the problem is that social media has never been an integral part of young people’s lives, said Darius Blades, a teenager from Brampton, Ont., who works as a consultant for OneChild.ca, an organization focused on prevention. of the sexual exploitation of children.
“I personally think a lot of that addiction comes from, you know, social media was something that we were indoctrinated with. We grew up with it,” he said.
Some of OneChild.ca’s work involves destigmatizing the issue so young people don’t feel embarrassed to come forward when they’re victimized, he said.
“I think a big part of the problem is also that when it happens to you, they’re not necessarily comfortable coming forward,” he said.
“They can feel embarrassed almost because, you know, they can think they’re alone in the problem and they think they’re alone in their experiences and what’s happening to them.”
Blades says he thinks it’s important for parents to have conversations with their kids about this, not lecture them.
“I know I shouldn’t be sending these types of photos to strangers online, but no matter what, it always happens,” he said.
“Look at your kids as people, you know, real sentient beings with their own thoughts and opinions on a lot of these situations. Ask them where they’re coming from regarding these issues.”
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