February 2, 2024 • 19 mins
Today's show: FBI Special Agent Jeanette Harper shared information on how to prevent and report crimes involving sextortion.
Welcome to "First Fridays with the FBI," the show that offers a community approach to every day citizen and law enforcement interaction.
Stay tuned to "First Fridays with the FBI" to stay informed and vigilant.
Subscribe now and join us.
First Fridays with the FBI is a TV program and podcast founded by El Paso citizens encouraging situational awareness to assist the public with being aware about preventing acts of domestic and international violence. Highlighting the need for citizens to remain vigilant while encouraging communities to be advocates in the effort to prevent crime and violence, the goal is to encourage listeners to consider careers in law enforcement and share vital information with family, friends, and the community.
Disclaimer: This podcast/show is not endorsed by the FBI or any governmental entity. It was created and founded by a non-law enforcement citizen for the community, to support the efforts of the nation's leading law enforcement agency to educate the community on how to prevent and report crimes. . Follow on social media @FirstFridaysFBI and @MidlifeMocha
Resources:
The FBI’s Victim Services Division provides financial sextortion
victims in FBI investigations with numerous services through its
Child Pornography Victim Assistance program:
https://www.fbi.gov/resources/victim-services/cpva
o The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
sextortion information page:
http://www.missingkids.org/theissues/sextortion
o The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website
at https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/ includes information about one
step victims can take to remove online nude or sexually explicit
content from various platforms.
o 988 Suicides & Crisis lifeline: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline -
Call. Text. Chat. (988lifeline.org)
Welcome to "First Fridays with the FBI," the show that offers a community approach to every day citizen and law enforcement interaction.
Stay tuned to "First Fridays with the FBI" to stay informed and vigilant.
Subscribe now and join us.
First Fridays with the FBI is a TV program and podcast founded by El Paso citizens encouraging situational awareness to assist the public with being aware about preventing acts of domestic and international violence. Highlighting the need for citizens to remain vigilant while encouraging communities to be advocates in the effort to prevent crime and violence, the goal is to encourage listeners to consider careers in law enforcement and share vital information with family, friends, and the community.
Disclaimer: This podcast/show is not endorsed by the FBI or any governmental entity. It was created and founded by a non-law enforcement citizen for the community, to support the efforts of the nation's leading law enforcement agency to educate the community on how to prevent and report crimes. . Follow on social media @FirstFridaysFBI and @MidlifeMocha
Resources:
The FBI’s Victim Services Division provides financial sextortion
victims in FBI investigations with numerous services through its
Child Pornography Victim Assistance program:
https://www.fbi.gov/resources/victim-services/cpva
o The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
sextortion information page:
http://www.missingkids.org/theissues/sextortion
o The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children website
at https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/ includes information about one
step victims can take to remove online nude or sexually explicit
content from various platforms.
o 988 Suicides & Crisis lifeline: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline -
Call. Text. Chat. (988lifeline.org)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome back to another edition of FirstFridays with the FBI. We're happy to
be back. We missed you guysin January, but we're here today with
our very special favorite FBI agent.It's just that HRD for Okay, he
think ID to be back, HappyNew Year and all that good stuff.
Yeah. Great, Now I knowwe're going to get right into it because
(00:22):
this is a topic that's really importantand it's financial sextortion. Yes, so
tell us about financial sex stortion andhow's it different than sextortion. So financial
sex Well, let's start with traditionalsextortion, because we've talked about that before
and you may remember, it's justmore of you. You you think you're
in a relationship or you've met someoneonline and then you've gone to this point
(00:46):
in a relationship where now you haveexchanged sexually explicit images or content videos,
and then once that individual on theother end receiving in gets those and they
start threatening you for more images,more video, more content, or they're
going to release the videos to yourfriends or family, employers, that sort
of thing all over social media.Well, now, financial sex stortion is
(01:08):
what we're seeing now targeting our youth, our teenage children even younger and then
sometimes even seven years old. Sowhat this is is they believe that they
have these friendships online, they're beinggroomed to send explicit material, either pictures
of themselves or you know, oftheir friends doing sexual acts. Once they
(01:34):
do that send that stuff, thereceivers, the scammers then try to they
demand money. So they'll demand anywherefrom one hundred dollars, five hundred dollars,
one thousand dollars, anything that thechildren have access to, and if
they don't pay, then they thenthey threaten them to release it to friends
and family and all across social media. Right. So, you know,
(01:57):
friend the children in this position thinkingthat these pictures they had sent in private
and confidence being sent to their entireschool. Right. So that's the difference
of what we're seeing right now.Okay, so I guess it kind of
covered a little bit of why ithappened, but I think it's a little
deeper than that. I'm sure alittle deeper, you know, And everything
nowadays stems from what our children aredoing online, through social media accounts,
(02:23):
through communication platforms and gaming platforms.Some of the children victims that we have
taught to thought that they were actuallyin friendships or in a relationship with the
other individual, which turns out tobe a road mail, so that once
they have exchanged those images, thenthat goes south. Right. So,
(02:47):
and then some of the other childrenthat no, they thought they were just
friends, but they submit, theysuccumb to peer pressure or belieing to provide
those materials to them. They didn'tthink anything about it when they were asked
to go to private chat rooms orsomething of that sort. But they just
thought they were their friends or relationship. What are some of the common tactics
(03:12):
used by these predators? So,like I said, some of the things
I've said before, they thought theywere in a relationship or in friendship.
They're grooming them just like a handson child predator would do. They are
going to find what your likes anddislikes are. They're going to be the
perfect person. Right. They arepatients and they will wait and they'll develop
(03:35):
those relationships with you. They keepdiaries of what your kids likes or dislikes
are, and it might just bein casual conversation that they developed those relationships.
Now, some of the ones wherethey're grooming our younger children, they'll
give them like little tasks like here, why don't you send me a picture
of you blowing me a kiss oryou know, and then they just work
(03:58):
up to the more actually explicit andthey're like, don't worry, I won't
tell your parents or something. Sobut what we see is that it's so
devastating because once they get that messagewhere I'm going to release it, I
want money, or we'll see childrentaking money from their parents' wallets, or
they may feel so overwhelmed that theycommit suicide or they do self harm to
(04:25):
try to get out of the extortion. So this is what we're really concerned
about. The FBI has seen overan HSI. We've received over twenty thousand
reports of victims from this, andwe'd have seen the numbers an increased amount
of suicides from the teenage boys thatare being targeted. That's one of the
(04:50):
things that most people don't talk about, the boys. So who is the
most targeted? So I said,right now, what we're talking about the
financialistic story. We're seeing this hugeincrease to our teenage boys anywhere from fourteen
to seventeen because they believe they're inthose relationships right with the other girl or
another boy, and they are morewilling to pay. Or the unfortunate end
(05:15):
is the self harm or those suicidebecause they're so embarrassed and they're so ashamed
that they were tricked and they don'twant they don't know how to deal with
that pressure of having those pictures sentout to their friends and family and that
sort of thing. Girls are stillvictims, but right now we're seeing a
huge increase in our teenage boys.Like I said, and you are fourteen,
(05:36):
seventeen, and sometimes even seven yearsold. Wow, oh my god.
Seven Yeah, it's very young.Wow. Obviously it's growing the financial
sextortion. So what has the FBIseen here in al Passo as far as
victims and predators? Like you knowme, I always want to know the
(05:57):
numbers here. So yeah, I'mjust curious. I know. I think
if we're here in ol Paso,we're always under this assumption that where they're
safest city in the nation. Butit does happen here. And in twenty
twenty three alone, we had twentyvictims report to us and those were all
teenage boys, right, So itdoes happen here. There's many more that
(06:20):
go unreported because they're just embarrassed andashamed. Or even the parents are upset
that this happened, right, sothey don't report it. They just want
it to go away. But itdoes happen here. The subjects what we
see primarily are overseas in Nigeria,the Ivory Coast and the Philippines, but
(06:42):
we have also seen some instances wherewe have predators here that are being trained
from individuals overseas. They may notbe learning, but they're targeting children from
other states across the US. Butthat doesn't mean we haven't. Haven't we
just have an ida find any victimshere within Ol Pasos, So we do
have those predators here as well aswe do have victims here. That's just
(07:08):
you know, so for those whoare listening to see it does happen here
in ol past does and you know, I know we'll get into later,
you know, what what can parentsdo? But so, and did you
mention that about where the subjects arelocated. Yes, so either Nigeria,
the Ivory Cols, the Philippines,like unfortunately they're outside the United States,
(07:31):
but we do have individuals in theUnited States, so even here in Alas.
That's what I wanted to hear againbecause sometimes people just don't think it
happens here, So the victims andperpetrators can also be here in al Paso.
Yes, so, and if youfollow us on our social media or
(07:51):
just the news, like we're allconstantly putting out individuals that are traveling UH
to see the youth in person havesexual relationships with them, right, So
we do have that hands on,but we also do have the online extortion
sex stortion. So can you touchagain on I guess a little bit more
depth on what happens if they're overseasand they're doing this. So yeah,
(08:16):
just because they're overseas doesn't mean thatwe don't have an arm into those countries.
So we have an International Crimes againstChildren's Task Force that work with those
other agencies in those countries. Ithink recently there was an individual from Nigeria
that was extradited to Florida to andhe was charged with over forty years in
(08:41):
prison for justice thing for financial sextortion. So we work with those countries and
we work with their extradition laws tobring those individuals back to de face justice
for what they've done as far asthe extortion. And if there is heaven
forbid a day us involved they will, they will. We will seek justice
(09:03):
for the family that doesn't. Itdoesn't replace the loss of their their baby
boy or baby girl. But atleast we can give them some soul and
step that man is behind bars.Now, wow, good, that's good.
So how can you and how theFBI kind of encourage parents to protect
(09:26):
their children and not just the parentsprotecting them children, but how can these
teenagers, especially young young boys toofor themselves. So I think what's a
little different with this campaign is we'rereally trying to focus on the teens,
right, We're really trying to focuson them. Just be careful who you
trust online. Do not pictures happen. They're going to happen, But don't
(09:52):
be ashamed, don't don't take theextreme and take your life to get out
of this situation. There's help outthere. We want to help you if
you are a victim, right,want to think of the long term.
There's resources out there where you canand we'll talk about that in a little
bit of how you can take thosepictures down. Right, there's a life
after the pictures. Now, tothe parents, we can't stress this enough
(10:16):
that you kind of be you needto be aware of what your children are
putting out there, what friendships theyhave, what they're doing online. Kids
don't want to share that stuff allthe time. And the parents were busy,
some of some of the parents outthere busy working, you know,
full time jobs and tired and theirtrusting and their kids. But if we
(10:37):
have victims as young as seven,there should be some parental controls on those
computers. You should be looking tosee who they're talking with. You should
talk to your children like, hey, if somebody's asking you to go to
a different chat room and take youaway from everybody else, that's a concern
and you need to tell mom anddad, right, you need to teach
(11:00):
them like don't share where you live, don't share what school you go to,
like very things where they can narrowit down and try to find where
you are. It's just look attheir security parameters on social media. Lockdown
those accounts. It's just things thatwe've talked about about online safety, and
we'll discuss resources of how parents,what parents can learn and how to protect
(11:24):
their kids online. Okay, soyou know, I know you're gonna list
the resources, and I know thatkind of goes into what victims should do
or if so if you know someonethat's going through this, so, so
can you share a little bit moreabout that the resources? Yeah, yeah,
(11:45):
So first of all, so theFBI at FBI dot gov, we
have a lot of resources for aboutfinancial sex stortion. We've just put out
press release. There's guidance in therefor parents, caretakers, right guardians,
and teams themselves. But if youdon't comfortable going to FBI that gov,
there's the National Center of Missing andExploited Children. It's called NICKMIK, and
(12:07):
they have resources for parents on howto bring up the conversation. It's under
their issues tab. If there arepictures out there, there's a it's called
take it Down, so you cango through that process and Nickmick will help
you take those pictures off the internet. So there is a service that way.
(12:31):
The FBI also provides victim services,so we will send a counselor out
there to talk with the parents andtalk with the children and provide them resources
on how they can overcome this.Right, your life doesn't stop at this
moment. I mean you're how oldyou are, fourteen fifteen? You have
your whole life ahead of you andthis is just a roadblock in the way
(12:56):
speedbump. So there is help outthere to help you learn how to overcome
and deal with this. It's notthe shame should not drive you to or
the stress or not being able toemostly handle the pressure should not be a
reason for you to self harm andto commit suicide. Just think of the
(13:16):
loss and the pain that you're leavingbehind if you do that. We also
have the nine eighty eight it's theSuicide and Crisis Hotline, and you can
even text nine eighty eight, right, So there's always counselors out there that
you can reach out to and textto if you don't feel comfortable going to
a trusted adult, So please reachout to them and they can help you
(13:39):
as well. But please, thereare resources and there are people out there
that want to help you and tohelp you overcome this and move on to
a more healthier, happier life.That's good. So for your teenagers who
are listening, there is help thereis to show pass if you are going
(14:01):
through beds. Yes, and Ithink it's very important that the parents understand
and the teenagers like, it's notyour child's fault, right. The FBI
does not consider when that teenager sendsa new picture of themselves. That's not
a crime. So we're not goingto go after your son or your daughter
(14:22):
for doing it, right, Right, They are a victim in this situation
and we are gonna treat them asthe victim. So don't get mad at
your child. It's not their fault, it's not your fault, right,
So don't beat yourself up for itas well. Right, But there is
help out there, and we wantto make sure you guys know that we
can help you overcome the shame andthe fear. So reach out to law
(14:45):
enforcement as soon as it happens.Block the user, right, don't delete
the screen captures because law enforcement isgoing to need that so we can go
after them and then reach out tothe social media platforms and report this individual,
right, So then that way theycan block them from harming other children.
(15:07):
It's part of their safety protocols.Looking. That was just discussed on
the Hill yesterday. So there isways to go about. So we want
screen captures, we want user names, we want to know what platforms they
were on. That way we cango after them and prevent them from causing
this harm to other children. Right, that's good, thanks, So is
(15:33):
there anything else you'd like to share, Like, I know, is there
anything else that that parents or teenagersor anywhere else that they can learn more
about sextortion? So again Nick macFBI dot gov. So if you if
you have younger children, Nick,Nick has a very good tool it's called
net smarts or in the cloud,and that helps teach kids about online safety.
(16:00):
So there's videos, there's they havelittle avatars in there. So that
will help if you have younger childrenand you need to start educating them about
online safety, right, So lookat those tools. They're geared for different
ages and that will help you.And I said, but they also have
the resources that help those conversation starters. It's very awkward conversation to talk to
(16:23):
your teenager about this stuff, soit helps you get ideas on how to
broach the conversation with them. Onceyou start that conversation and kind of get
through the teenage attitude, hopefully it'llmake a difference. But the youth that
are out there, like I know, my son's fourteen, he doesn't really
(16:45):
want to talk to me. I'mtoo much, but I'm like yeah,
I'm like, but you gotta becareful if you talk to if they ask
you let me know, and thenyou know we're gonna start talking. Me
is Mama Bear is gonna start lookinginto that individual and reporting them and going
forth, because I don't want themto fall into that trap. Like there's
(17:06):
enough going on in daily life forteenagers and having to deal with financial sextors
exactly. Well, I really appreciatethat. We're gonna have a lot of
things going on this year. We'rehoping to start some initiatives prayerly by summer
with the FBI, so to helpspread the message even further. Yes,
(17:29):
So, yeah, and we forgotto mention Nick Nick. If you don't
follow them on social media, youshould. They had a tweeked or and
I even put it on the FBI'sEl Pasos social media accounts yesterday that had
a timeline of a financial sextortion incident. So there's a child that was reached
(17:51):
out at eight o seven. Bylike ten o'clock, they were demanding photos.
Here, they sent photos, andthen they were demanding more and by
midnight the conversation stopped. But thenyou see where the next morning, the
subject reaches out to the boy's girlfriendsends the photos to the girlfriend. The
(18:11):
girlfriend says, yes, that's myboyfriend. How did you get this?
And then they start demanding money fromthe girlfriend and they're like, well,
my boyfriend committed suicide last night,right, so between eight o'clock and midnight,
that boy was so devastated that hecommitted suicide four hours into the conversation.
So Nick, Nick has a lotof good resources and a lot of
(18:36):
good real life testimony and even fromparents where they're devastated after their children have
committed suicide. So this is avery important topic. It strikes a chord
with all of us, especially likeanybody, any parent, or anyone out
there, even us in the FBI. Right, we have our own children,
so we're trying to protect them aswe're helping try at your kids as
(19:00):
well, and we will share thatinformation and their social media pages also.
And I want to thank you again. We're going to continue this conversation,
especially for our young people, especiallyfor our young young boys you know here
too, So we appreciate you.We're definitely looking forward to sharing the information
(19:21):
and keeping our community and our kidssafe. It was a pleasure being here
again. Thank you. Go Eagles, did you say go
Welcome back to another edition of FirstFridays with the FBI. We're happy to
be back. We missed you guysin January, but we're here today with
our very special favorite FBI agent.It's just that HRD for Okay, he
think ID to be back, HappyNew Year and all that good stuff.
Yeah. Great, Now I knowwe're going to get right into it because
(00:22):
this is a topic that's really importantand it's financial sextortion. Yes, so
tell us about financial sex stortion andhow's it different than sextortion. So financial
sex Well, let's start with traditionalsextortion, because we've talked about that before
and you may remember, it's justmore of you. You you think you're
in a relationship or you've met someoneonline and then you've gone to this point
(00:46):
in a relationship where now you haveexchanged sexually explicit images or content videos,
and then once that individual on theother end receiving in gets those and they
start threatening you for more images,more video, more content, or they're
going to release the videos to yourfriends or family, employers, that sort
of thing all over social media.Well, now, financial sex stortion is
(01:08):
what we're seeing now targeting our youth, our teenage children even younger and then
sometimes even seven years old. Sowhat this is is they believe that they
have these friendships online, they're beinggroomed to send explicit material, either pictures
of themselves or you know, oftheir friends doing sexual acts. Once they
(01:34):
do that send that stuff, thereceivers, the scammers then try to they
demand money. So they'll demand anywherefrom one hundred dollars, five hundred dollars,
one thousand dollars, anything that thechildren have access to, and if
they don't pay, then they thenthey threaten them to release it to friends
and family and all across social media. Right. So, you know,
(01:57):
friend the children in this position thinkingthat these pictures they had sent in private
and confidence being sent to their entireschool. Right. So that's the difference
of what we're seeing right now.Okay, so I guess it kind of
covered a little bit of why ithappened, but I think it's a little
deeper than that. I'm sure alittle deeper, you know, And everything
nowadays stems from what our children aredoing online, through social media accounts,
(02:23):
through communication platforms and gaming platforms.Some of the children victims that we have
taught to thought that they were actuallyin friendships or in a relationship with the
other individual, which turns out tobe a road mail, so that once
they have exchanged those images, thenthat goes south. Right. So,
(02:47):
and then some of the other childrenthat no, they thought they were just
friends, but they submit, theysuccumb to peer pressure or belieing to provide
those materials to them. They didn'tthink anything about it when they were asked
to go to private chat rooms orsomething of that sort. But they just
thought they were their friends or relationship. What are some of the common tactics
(03:12):
used by these predators? So,like I said, some of the things
I've said before, they thought theywere in a relationship or in friendship.
They're grooming them just like a handson child predator would do. They are
going to find what your likes anddislikes are. They're going to be the
perfect person. Right. They arepatients and they will wait and they'll develop
(03:35):
those relationships with you. They keepdiaries of what your kids likes or dislikes
are, and it might just bein casual conversation that they developed those relationships.
Now, some of the ones wherethey're grooming our younger children, they'll
give them like little tasks like here, why don't you send me a picture
of you blowing me a kiss oryou know, and then they just work
(03:58):
up to the more actually explicit andthey're like, don't worry, I won't
tell your parents or something. Sobut what we see is that it's so
devastating because once they get that messagewhere I'm going to release it, I
want money, or we'll see childrentaking money from their parents' wallets, or
they may feel so overwhelmed that theycommit suicide or they do self harm to
(04:25):
try to get out of the extortion. So this is what we're really concerned
about. The FBI has seen overan HSI. We've received over twenty thousand
reports of victims from this, andwe'd have seen the numbers an increased amount
of suicides from the teenage boys thatare being targeted. That's one of the
(04:50):
things that most people don't talk about, the boys. So who is the
most targeted? So I said,right now, what we're talking about the
financialistic story. We're seeing this hugeincrease to our teenage boys anywhere from fourteen
to seventeen because they believe they're inthose relationships right with the other girl or
another boy, and they are morewilling to pay. Or the unfortunate end
(05:15):
is the self harm or those suicidebecause they're so embarrassed and they're so ashamed
that they were tricked and they don'twant they don't know how to deal with
that pressure of having those pictures sentout to their friends and family and that
sort of thing. Girls are stillvictims, but right now we're seeing a
huge increase in our teenage boys.Like I said, and you are fourteen,
(05:36):
seventeen, and sometimes even seven yearsold. Wow, oh my god.
Seven Yeah, it's very young.Wow. Obviously it's growing the financial
sextortion. So what has the FBIseen here in al Passo as far as
victims and predators? Like you knowme, I always want to know the
(05:57):
numbers here. So yeah, I'mjust curious. I know. I think
if we're here in ol Paso,we're always under this assumption that where they're
safest city in the nation. Butit does happen here. And in twenty
twenty three alone, we had twentyvictims report to us and those were all
teenage boys, right, So itdoes happen here. There's many more that
(06:20):
go unreported because they're just embarrassed andashamed. Or even the parents are upset
that this happened, right, sothey don't report it. They just want
it to go away. But itdoes happen here. The subjects what we
see primarily are overseas in Nigeria,the Ivory Coast and the Philippines, but
(06:42):
we have also seen some instances wherewe have predators here that are being trained
from individuals overseas. They may notbe learning, but they're targeting children from
other states across the US. Butthat doesn't mean we haven't. Haven't we
just have an ida find any victimshere within Ol Pasos, So we do
have those predators here as well aswe do have victims here. That's just
(07:08):
you know, so for those whoare listening to see it does happen here
in ol past does and you know, I know we'll get into later,
you know, what what can parentsdo? But so, and did you
mention that about where the subjects arelocated. Yes, so either Nigeria,
the Ivory Cols, the Philippines,like unfortunately they're outside the United States,
(07:31):
but we do have individuals in theUnited States, so even here in Alas.
That's what I wanted to hear againbecause sometimes people just don't think it
happens here, So the victims andperpetrators can also be here in al Paso.
Yes, so, and if youfollow us on our social media or
(07:51):
just the news, like we're allconstantly putting out individuals that are traveling UH
to see the youth in person havesexual relationships with them, right, So
we do have that hands on,but we also do have the online extortion
sex stortion. So can you touchagain on I guess a little bit more
depth on what happens if they're overseasand they're doing this. So yeah,
(08:16):
just because they're overseas doesn't mean thatwe don't have an arm into those countries.
So we have an International Crimes againstChildren's Task Force that work with those
other agencies in those countries. Ithink recently there was an individual from Nigeria
that was extradited to Florida to andhe was charged with over forty years in
(08:41):
prison for justice thing for financial sextortion. So we work with those countries and
we work with their extradition laws tobring those individuals back to de face justice
for what they've done as far asthe extortion. And if there is heaven
forbid a day us involved they will, they will. We will seek justice
(09:03):
for the family that doesn't. Itdoesn't replace the loss of their their baby
boy or baby girl. But atleast we can give them some soul and
step that man is behind bars.Now, wow, good, that's good.
So how can you and how theFBI kind of encourage parents to protect
(09:26):
their children and not just the parentsprotecting them children, but how can these
teenagers, especially young young boys toofor themselves. So I think what's a
little different with this campaign is we'rereally trying to focus on the teens,
right, We're really trying to focuson them. Just be careful who you
trust online. Do not pictures happen. They're going to happen, But don't
(09:52):
be ashamed, don't don't take theextreme and take your life to get out
of this situation. There's help outthere. We want to help you if
you are a victim, right,want to think of the long term.
There's resources out there where you canand we'll talk about that in a little
bit of how you can take thosepictures down. Right, there's a life
after the pictures. Now, tothe parents, we can't stress this enough
(10:16):
that you kind of be you needto be aware of what your children are
putting out there, what friendships theyhave, what they're doing online. Kids
don't want to share that stuff allthe time. And the parents were busy,
some of some of the parents outthere busy working, you know,
full time jobs and tired and theirtrusting and their kids. But if we
(10:37):
have victims as young as seven,there should be some parental controls on those
computers. You should be looking tosee who they're talking with. You should
talk to your children like, hey, if somebody's asking you to go to
a different chat room and take youaway from everybody else, that's a concern
and you need to tell mom anddad, right, you need to teach
(11:00):
them like don't share where you live, don't share what school you go to,
like very things where they can narrowit down and try to find where
you are. It's just look attheir security parameters on social media. Lockdown
those accounts. It's just things thatwe've talked about about online safety, and
we'll discuss resources of how parents,what parents can learn and how to protect
(11:24):
their kids online. Okay, soyou know, I know you're gonna list
the resources, and I know thatkind of goes into what victims should do
or if so if you know someonethat's going through this, so, so
can you share a little bit moreabout that the resources? Yeah, yeah,
(11:45):
So first of all, so theFBI at FBI dot gov, we
have a lot of resources for aboutfinancial sex stortion. We've just put out
press release. There's guidance in therefor parents, caretakers, right guardians,
and teams themselves. But if youdon't comfortable going to FBI that gov,
there's the National Center of Missing andExploited Children. It's called NICKMIK, and
(12:07):
they have resources for parents on howto bring up the conversation. It's under
their issues tab. If there arepictures out there, there's a it's called
take it Down, so you cango through that process and Nickmick will help
you take those pictures off the internet. So there is a service that way.
(12:31):
The FBI also provides victim services,so we will send a counselor out
there to talk with the parents andtalk with the children and provide them resources
on how they can overcome this.Right, your life doesn't stop at this
moment. I mean you're how oldyou are, fourteen fifteen? You have
your whole life ahead of you andthis is just a roadblock in the way
(12:56):
speedbump. So there is help outthere to help you learn how to overcome
and deal with this. It's notthe shame should not drive you to or
the stress or not being able toemostly handle the pressure should not be a
reason for you to self harm andto commit suicide. Just think of the
(13:16):
loss and the pain that you're leavingbehind if you do that. We also
have the nine eighty eight it's theSuicide and Crisis Hotline, and you can
even text nine eighty eight, right, So there's always counselors out there that
you can reach out to and textto if you don't feel comfortable going to
a trusted adult, So please reachout to them and they can help you
(13:39):
as well. But please, thereare resources and there are people out there
that want to help you and tohelp you overcome this and move on to
a more healthier, happier life.That's good. So for your teenagers who
are listening, there is help thereis to show pass if you are going
(14:01):
through beds. Yes, and Ithink it's very important that the parents understand
and the teenagers like, it's notyour child's fault, right. The FBI
does not consider when that teenager sendsa new picture of themselves. That's not
a crime. So we're not goingto go after your son or your daughter
(14:22):
for doing it, right, Right, They are a victim in this situation
and we are gonna treat them asthe victim. So don't get mad at
your child. It's not their fault, it's not your fault, right,
So don't beat yourself up for itas well. Right, But there is
help out there, and we wantto make sure you guys know that we
can help you overcome the shame andthe fear. So reach out to law
(14:45):
enforcement as soon as it happens.Block the user, right, don't delete
the screen captures because law enforcement isgoing to need that so we can go
after them and then reach out tothe social media platforms and report this individual,
right, So then that way theycan block them from harming other children.
(15:07):
It's part of their safety protocols.Looking. That was just discussed on
the Hill yesterday. So there isways to go about. So we want
screen captures, we want user names, we want to know what platforms they
were on. That way we cango after them and prevent them from causing
this harm to other children. Right, that's good, thanks, So is
(15:33):
there anything else you'd like to share, Like, I know, is there
anything else that that parents or teenagersor anywhere else that they can learn more
about sextortion? So again Nick macFBI dot gov. So if you if
you have younger children, Nick,Nick has a very good tool it's called
net smarts or in the cloud,and that helps teach kids about online safety.
(16:00):
So there's videos, there's they havelittle avatars in there. So that
will help if you have younger childrenand you need to start educating them about
online safety, right, So lookat those tools. They're geared for different
ages and that will help you.And I said, but they also have
the resources that help those conversation starters. It's very awkward conversation to talk to
(16:23):
your teenager about this stuff, soit helps you get ideas on how to
broach the conversation with them. Onceyou start that conversation and kind of get
through the teenage attitude, hopefully it'llmake a difference. But the youth that
are out there, like I know, my son's fourteen, he doesn't really
(16:45):
want to talk to me. I'mtoo much, but I'm like yeah,
I'm like, but you gotta becareful if you talk to if they ask
you let me know, and thenyou know we're gonna start talking. Me
is Mama Bear is gonna start lookinginto that individual and reporting them and going
forth, because I don't want themto fall into that trap. Like there's
(17:06):
enough going on in daily life forteenagers and having to deal with financial sextors
exactly. Well, I really appreciatethat. We're gonna have a lot of
things going on this year. We'rehoping to start some initiatives prayerly by summer
with the FBI, so to helpspread the message even further. Yes,
(17:29):
So, yeah, and we forgotto mention Nick Nick. If you don't
follow them on social media, youshould. They had a tweeked or and
I even put it on the FBI'sEl Pasos social media accounts yesterday that had
a timeline of a financial sextortion incident. So there's a child that was reached
(17:51):
out at eight o seven. Bylike ten o'clock, they were demanding photos.
Here, they sent photos, andthen they were demanding more and by
midnight the conversation stopped. But thenyou see where the next morning, the
subject reaches out to the boy's girlfriendsends the photos to the girlfriend. The
(18:11):
girlfriend says, yes, that's myboyfriend. How did you get this?
And then they start demanding money fromthe girlfriend and they're like, well,
my boyfriend committed suicide last night,right, so between eight o'clock and midnight,
that boy was so devastated that hecommitted suicide four hours into the conversation.
So Nick, Nick has a lotof good resources and a lot of
(18:36):
good real life testimony and even fromparents where they're devastated after their children have
committed suicide. So this is avery important topic. It strikes a chord
with all of us, especially likeanybody, any parent, or anyone out
there, even us in the FBI. Right, we have our own children,
so we're trying to protect them aswe're helping try at your kids as
(19:00):
well, and we will share thatinformation and their social media pages also.
And I want to thank you again. We're going to continue this conversation,
especially for our young people, especiallyfor our young young boys you know here
too, So we appreciate you.We're definitely looking forward to sharing the information
(19:21):
and keeping our community and our kidssafe. It was a pleasure being here
again. Thank you. Go Eagles, did you say go
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