National Safety Alert Issued Over 'Explosion' Of Child Sextortion Cases

The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a national public safety alert over the rising number of cases of sextortion, especially among younger people.

Officials said that the predators troll social media, gaming platforms, and other online spaces, looking for potential victims. The suspects mostly target boys between the ages of 14 and 17.

The predators convince their victims to send them explicit photos of themselves. Then, once they have the images, the suspects threaten to release them unless the victims pay them in gift cards or through other peer-to-peer payment applications.

In some cases, the photos are released even though the victim paid. The FBI has linked more than a dozen suicides to victims of sextortion.

The FBI noted there has been an "explosion" in new sextortion cases over the past year, with the number of cases increasing by 1000% since 2021.

"The sexual exploitation of children is a deplorable crime. HSI special agents will continue to exhaust every resource to identify, locate, and apprehend predators to ensure they face justice," said Steve K. Francis, Homeland Security Investigations acting executive associate director. "Criminals who lurk in platforms on the internet are not as anonymous as they think. HSI will continue to leverage cutting-edge technology to end these heinous acts."