We are all about child safety here at Kids Matter. We want to help you keep kids safe at home and online.
Kids and teens are increasingly at risk of online scammers and predators. At the same time, they often know more about phone and internet features than older generations. How do we help keep them safe?
The first thing we can do is try to keep up! Have you heard of sextortion?
Sextortion starts with a young person receiving an online message from someone who may appear to be a friend even though that person is a stranger or a bot. The ["friend"] may comment on a youth's post or video, giving them a compliment to start engaging with them. After some chatting, the youth's new "friend" sends an explicit photo, and asks the youth to reciprocate. Once the youth sends an explicit photo of themselves, the stranger demands a large sum of money and threatens to send the photo to the youth's online network - friends, family, and classmates. Now feeling desperate, embarrassed or both, the youth agrees to transfer money or shares their financial information. Then the threats just keep coming.
Jordan (above) was only 17 years old when scammers targeted him online. He thought suicide was the only option. Jordan's family wants to share his story to help other youth know the risks, and that it will be ok to talk with the people who care about them. Read more about Jordan's story here.
Over 12,000 young people were victims of financial sextortion between October of 2021 and March of 2023 according to reports from the FBI and at least 20 of the victims committed suicide.
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