Protect & Prevent - An Overview of Financial Sextortion and the Link to Teen Suicide

Warning: This podcast explores the impact of suicide in the context of financial sextortion. If you are experiencing thoughts of self-harm, we encourage you to seek help—support is available. If you or someone you know is in crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (US) or a local mental health professional.

For the past two years, the team of researchers at MillionKids.org has followed the heart breaking trend where exceptionally fine young males are seduced/tricked into sending a nude, and then they are blackmailed by an overseas criminal group, and ultimately they take their own lives. It is a unique phenomenon that just tears at the soul. As we read the stories of these young men and all their dreams and hopes and plans for the future, suddenly comes to an end based on one spur of the moment decision. Million Kids is a group of connected professionals bound together by a common passion. We share the latest trends and combine our thoughts in a search for solutions. Together we have reviewed more than 40 stories of financial sextortion that came to a tragic end. We try to craft actions that can make a difference. We look for answers on how we can educate parents, teens, and school professionals about how financial sextortion works and how can we keep our kids from falling prey to it. The agonizing truth is that financial sextortion is just getting started. As the entire world became connected through 5g high speed internet, coupled with mass audience live streaming, geo location software, global money transfer, and now artificial intelligence, every third world criminal will realize that there is a gold mine in tricking and seducing America's teens. They know if they can get a young person to send a nude they can blackmail them for large sums of money. Once the image is sent, the blackmail is more brutal than anyone of us can understand until you read these heartbreaking stories. One victim received a thousand texts in 24 hours, demanding money and suggesting he should end his life. Few American families understand that our kids are on the front line of global extortion and even fewer know what to do about it. Be sure to join us.