#25 - Sextortion | Ashy & Levi

“Sextortion is huge, it’s a massive problem”.

“In my 30 years of policing, I’ve never seen a crime type that is tipping previously mentally well young people into a crisis as quickly as sextortion does”, Sarah Mclean (Australia’s first cyber cop) said.

Today’s episode is in response to the below post by Scott Page, the barefoot investor. 

https://www.change.org/p/36-months-raising-the-age-for-social-media-citizenship?source_location=discover_feed 

Sign this petition to raise the minimum age Australian teenagers can sign up for social media accounts from 13 to 16.

From Scott Pape, the Barefoot Investor 

_________

Wayne is a 50-something Barefoot Dad. His son Mackenzie (Mac) is 16 years old, and obsessed with footy, cricket and getting his L-plates. 

The trouble began when Mac befriended a girl on Snapchat who was friends with some of his friends.

“Hi Sweety, what do you do?” she wrote.

Mac told her that he was the captain of his footy team and that he liked to work out. 

She told him he looked like he had great abs, and then sent him a photo of her breasts.

Mac responded by sending a nude photo … but without his head in the shot. 

She returned the favour, sending him a nude photo … also without her head in the shot. And after a few more minutes of flirting, they both sent nude photos of themselves with their heads in shot. 

Then Mac’s phone rang.

On the other end of the line was a middle-aged man:

“I’ve got your photo, and I’ve hacked your Snapchat. Mac, you are going to put $500 into this bank account in five minutes, or I will send it to all your contacts.

“I’m counting”, he barked, then hung up.

Mac immediately transferred $500 to the man’s bank account.

And then Mac’s phone rang again.

“Mac, I’ve got your $500. But now I want another $500. And if you don’t pay me another $500, you’re going to be embarrassed. 

Your parents will hate you, and you’ll want to kill yourself”, he snarled before hanging up.

And then Mac did what you would want every single kid to do in this situation:

He walked out of his room, found his old man, and tearfully said, “Dad I’ve made a big mistake”.

And Wayne did what every single parent should do in this situation:

He lovingly put his arms around his son and said “Mate, you’ve done nothing wrong. You are the victim here. Everything is going to be all right.”

And then Mac’s phone rang … again. 

Wayne grabbed the phone and, quick as a flash, made something up: 

“This is Senior Sergeant Holdsworth from the Mornington Police. STAY AWAY FROM MY BOY!”

The scammer listened, breathing down the line, and then coolly replied:

“I don’t care about you or your son. You can both die.”  

And to prove it, he sent the photos to all of Mac’s friends on Snapchat.

Now he was forced to live with the consequences of his actions … which began at footy training the next night. (Thankfully, his coach turned it into an educational session for the boys on the dangers of sending explicit photos.)

The next few months were understandably rough for Mac. 

Yet, at dinner one night, Mac was back to his old self, joking with his sister and laughing at Wayne’s dad-jokes. Things had turned the corner, Wayne thought. As Mac went off to bed that night he told his old man that he was excited to put on his L-plates in the morning.

And then Mac went to his room and killed himself.