Financial Sextortion on the Rise, Targeting Teen Boys, Thorn Research Finds

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Jun 24, 2024, 09:00 ET

New study shows financial sextortion schemes targeting teen boys on the rise, with organized international groups behind the surge

LOS ANGELES, June 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Thorn, a nonprofit that builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse, found that financial sextortion is on the rise, primarily targeting teenage boys.

"Trends in Financial Sextortion: An investigation of sextortion reports in NCMEC CyberTipline data," a research report conducted by Thorn in partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), highlights several dangerous trends:

Reports of sextortion averaged 812 per week from August 2022 to August 2023, with more than two-thirds of the reports involving financial demands.
90% of the victims are boys between 14 and 17.
Organized, international groups, operating predominantly out of Nigeria and Côte d'Ivoire, are identified as the main perpetrators.
38% of reports containing impact information indicate a payment was made; however, 27% of these victims reported continued extortion.
Of those reports describing specific impacts of the experience, more than 1 in 6 included mention of self-harm or suicide.

"Financial sextortion represents a grave and growing threat to children, especially teenage boys," said Julie Cordua, CEO of Thorn. "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. For parents, this new research is a reminder to start conversations with your children about online risks early to make sure they know how to recognize a dangerous situation and find help if they feel threatened. And for our society, it's a reminder of the urgent need for layered protections to keep our kids safe online."

"This study is critical to better understand how sextortion has impacted our communities," said Michelle DeLaune, President and CEO of NCMEC. "In the past year, we've been inundated with more than 800 sextortion-related reports per week. These are not just numbers; they represent the harrowing reality of children coerced and threatened, leaving them feeling isolated and powerless. By delving deep into NCMEC's data, we learn the predatory tactics being used against our vulnerable youth. Armed with this knowledge, we can formulate more effective strategies in the fight against sextortion."

Sextortion becomes more transactional

The rise in financial sextortion is a departure from past trends. Historically, sextortion cases frequently involved demands of a sexual or relational nature, predominantly impacting girls.

The current wave, however, has indicated an increase in financial exploitation, with teenage boys becoming the primary targets. Interactions with perpetrators are often transactional, and incidents can go from first contact with the victim to payment in 24 hours or sooner.

How perpetrators execute these schemes on a global scale

Because financial sextortion is increasingly an organized, international operation, there are many similarities across incidents:

Perpetrators often pose as other teens to reduce young people's inhibition to connect. They evade platform safeguards that restrict adult profiles from interacting with children.
Victims were most likely to share images in response to catfishing, typically involving the offender first sending what they claim are their own intimate images. However, in 11% of cases, children report not having shared images but instead being threatened with images that were in some way fake or inauthentic.
Perpetrators intimidate children with threats to "ruin" the child's life, such as by making the imagery go viral or face arrest if they don't pay. The threats are often formulaic, repeated nearly identically from victim to victim, and intentionally extreme to manipulate a victim into believing they are better served paying than seeking help.
Facebook, Instagram, and Snap were the dominant reporters of sextortion to NCMEC's CyberTipline; however, data demonstrates perpetrators are leveraging additional platforms including GChat, WhatsApp, Telegram, and iMessage to communicate with victims.
Gift cards and Cash App were the primary methods of payment.

"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," said Cordua. "Paying the perpetrator can lead to continued harassment. The best course of action in these situations is to not pay, to report the sextortion to NCMEC, law enforcement, and the platform where it occurred, and block the offender."

How to ensure child safety as sextortion evolves

Thorn's research underscores the need for platforms to enhance their detection and reporting mechanisms to better understand and track financial sextortion, and for parents and guardians to discuss the risks with their children and create safe spaces where children don't fear seeking help.

Thorn offers several resources for doing so, including Thorn for Parents, which helps parents and caregivers facilitate earlier, more frequent, and judgment-free conversations with kids about digital safety. In addition, Thorn's NoFiltr program encourages healthy and informed conversations directly among youth, equipping young people with the knowledge to recognize and navigate potentially risky online experiences.

In addition, if you or someone you know is worried about intimate images of them as a minor being online, NCMEC's Take It Down service can help have those images removed.

Read the full report: Trends in Financial Sextortion: An investigation of sextortion reports in NCMEC CyberTipline data

About Thorn

Thorn is a nonprofit that builds technology to defend children from sexual abuse. Founded in 2012, the organization creates products and programs to empower the platforms and people who have the ability to defend children. Thorn's tools have helped the tech industry detect and report millions of child sexual abuse files on the open web, connected investigators and NGOs with critical information to help them solve cases faster and remove children from harm, and provided parents and youth with digital safety resources to prevent abuse. To learn more about Thorn's mission to defend children from sexual abuse, visit thorn.org.

About The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private, non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation whose mission is to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization. For more information about NCMEC, please visit our website at www.missingkids.org.

SOURCE Thorn