Thousands of teen boys and their parents are suffering at the hands of sextortion scammers, according the nonprofit Thorn, and a experts spoke with Newsweek about it.
Thorn, which builds technology to protect children from sexual abuse, found financial scams targeting teens were on the rise. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children discovered reports of sextortion averaged 632 times per week from August 2022 and August 2023.
Sextortion occurs as a form of blackmail. Typically, a financial scammer will threaten to share details or sexual images and videos of you online if you don't hand over a specific amount of money. In some cases, the blackmailer will also ask for sex acts or more nude photographs.
Of the victims, most were boys between the ages of 14 and 17, Thorn said.
Thorn also discovered that international groups working from Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire were some of the main perpetrators in the sextortion cases.
Some victims paid financially due to the sextortion threats, while others continued to be harassed even after making a payment.
The impacts can be severe on teenagers as well, as some victims said they experienced thoughts or acts of self-harm and suicide as a result of the experience.
"Financial sextortion represents a grave and growing threat to children, especially teenage boys," said Julie Cordua, CEO of Thorn, in a statement. "Unlike traditional forms of sextortion, these perpetrators demand money, leveraging fear and the threat of sharing intimate images to extort their victims before they have time to seek support."
Cordua encouraged parents to start conversations with their children about these types of online risks so they can identify a dangerous situation and seek help if they do get threatened.
According to Thorn, sextortion cases have historically targeted women and girls, but the new wave indicates teen boys have a growing problem to contend with, and many might be unprotected from the financial and emotional harm that can occur as a result.
Psychotherapist Kimberly Parker said the higher rate of cases against boys reflects the societal pressure boys feel about masculinity and their own sexuality.
"Education starts at home where teens should be open and comfortable discussing sex in general," Parker told Newsweek. "I also believe that this should be discussed in sex education, discussing risk and having counselors available to those who have been victimized."
Teen boys are experiencing their sexuality for the first time, and many confusing and impulsive feelings can be experienced around that, said Rachel Goldberg, a licensed marriage family therapist and founder of Rachel Goldberg Therapy in Los Angeles, California.
"They are just in the exploratory stage of their emerging sexuality with physiological changes taking place that are new, exciting, and confusing," Goldberg told Newsweek. "As they start to make sense of these changes they are more easily influenced by temptation.
Goldberg said boys are also less likely to talk about these crimes due to shame and instead might comply with the extortion's demands. Girls, meanwhile, may feel more comfortable confiding in their friends and have greater awareness that they could be threatened in such a way online.
Historically, boys faced less shame or ridicule over their sex lives and body image than girls as well, so they might send out pictures of themselves more indiscriminately than their female counterparts, experts say.
Still, the biggest vulnerability might be their lack of age and experience alone.
"Teens are developmentally prone to believe bad things won't happen to them, which means they are more prone to trust the invisible other on the other end of the line," psychologist and Psychology Today contributor Lindsay Jernigan told Newsweek.
How to Protect Yourself
Many victims may not be expecting these types of scammers to pose as other teenagers, but that's a common tactic they employ to get results, according to Thorn.
The organization also found victims were most likely to share images after a scammer catfished them, showing their intimate images and asking for explicit ones in return. In some cases, the children chose not to share their own pictures but were then threatened with fake or inauthentic images anyway.
Many of the perpetrators say they will "ruin" the victim's life, with viral images or even arrest if they don't pay up. Websites like Facebook, Instagram and Snap had the highest numbers of reported sextortion cases, with gift cards and CashApp being the additional payment methods used by scammers.
"Sextortion can be a high-stress situation for children who may fear reporting the incident or seeking help, but it's important to remember that the threats are scripted to intimidate, silence, and isolate their victims," Cordua said. "Paying the perpetrator only increases the likelihood of continued harassment."
Cordua said your best course of action if targeted is to not pay and then report the sextortion to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, law enforcement as well as on the platform where it occurred. You should also block the perpetrator so they no longer can reach out.
"When teens are targeted and victimized, they are at risk of depression, anxiety, and suicidality, and they need to know they are not alone and can turn to their trusted adults for practical help and emotional support without risk of judgment or rejection," Jernigan said.
Update 4/4/24 9:55 a.m. ET: The headline has changed and some figures have been removed.
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