The headlines are gut-wrenching. Young boys, targeted online by perpetrators in disguise, are being manipulated to produce sexual imagery only to be immediately exploited for monetary gain under the pressure of severe social shaming. Some have not survived the experience.
Stories like James’, have gained national attention and Thorn has new evidence that this kind of exploitation is occurring at an alarming rate and continues to gain momentum. It’s called financial sextortion – a devastating form of exploitation leveraging sexual imagery for monetary gain – and it’s deeply concerning for all children growing up in the digital age.
Our groundbreaking study, “Trends in Financial Sextortion: An investigation of sextortion reports in NCMEC CyberTipline data,” conducted in collaboration with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), shows that financial sextortion is sharply on the rise, and is a tactic that is primarily used on unsuspecting teenage boys.
