ParentsTogether is leading a Day to End Meta Sextortion on August 27th to shine a spotlight on the serious and growing problem of sextortion on Meta platforms, Instagram and Facebook, and pressure Meta executives to take additional measures to prevent it.

What is sextortion?
Sextortion is a serious and sometimes deadly crime that has increased more than 150% in the past couple of years. The crime often follows a common pattern – a predator or organized group of criminals pose as a teen and convince a victim to share sexual images. The criminal then
blackmails the victim for money – often called financial sextortion – or more images – often called sexual or image-based sextortion. While any type of sextortion can happen to anyone, data indicates financial sextortion impacts more teen boys, and sexual sextortion impacts more tween and teen girls. Recent analysis of data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) by Thorn found Instagram was #1 platform where sextortionists meet kids, as well as the top platform where these predators threaten to share and actually share the images of the kids they are blackmailing. Facebook too, has a long history of connecting c children with sextortionists.

Sextortion is a serious crime, and by not taking it seriously and continually failing to put real prevention in place, Meta is putting thousands of kids at risk of exploitation, abuse, and even death. The parents who have experienced this harm first hand have had enough.

Learn more and how to participate here.

https://parentstogetheraction.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Day-to-End-Meta-Sextortion-Toolkit-1.pdf

Watch our discussion here.

The boss of Telegram has been arrested at an airport in France, the BBC reports.

39-year-old Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of the popular messaging app, was detained after his private jet landed at Le Bourget Airport north of Paris.

The BBC reports Durov’s arrest came under a warrant for offences relating to having a lack of moderators on the app, with Durov accused of failing to take necessary steps to curb criminal uses on the platform.

Read more here. 

When our awe of technology replaces the well-being of our children, action must be taken to ensure safer online experiences for youth.

“Teens, Social Media and Technology 2023” Pew Research Report

-96% use Internet daily

-46% say they are on the internet constantly, up from 24% in 2014-2015

-95% of 13-17 year-olds have access to a smartphone

–Top 5 Social Media Platforms used: YouTube (95%), TikTok (63%), Snapchat (60%) Instagram (59%), , Facebook (33%)

Reality, facts and take actions. Learn more here. 

The Biden-Harris administration has lost track of more than 320,000 migrant children who crossed the border without parents, according to a shocking new report.

Untold numbers of the children — who were released into the US to “qualified sponsors” — are now at risk of sex trafficking, forced labor and other forms of exploitation, a Homeland Security Inspector General’s report released Monday said.

As of May 2024, there are 291,000 migrant children who arrived in the US as unaccompanied minors who were set free and never given a date to appear in immigration court — meaning there is no way to track their whereabouts.

That is in addition to the 32,000 children that Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities released into the US with hearing dates but then failed to show in court, according to the 14-page report — which tracked a period from October 2018 to September 2023.

One federal whistleblower said that she believes many of these vulnerable kids could already be in the hands of criminals and sex traffickers.

Read more here.

Learn more here.

Sextortion is a serious and sometimes deadly crime that has increased more than 300% in the past couple of years – and most of it is happening on Instagram. As this crime spreads on their platform, Instagram’s response is getting worse. By not taking sextortion seriously, Instagram is putting thousands of kids at risk of exploitation, abuse, and even death.

Sextortion is a crime where a predator blackmails a victim over sexual or nude images – for money, more images, or something else of value. Teens are the most common victims of sextortion, and predators often initiate contact by pretending to be a peer and asking to exchange sexual images. The #1 place this happens online: Instagram.

Recent analysis of data from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) by Thorn found Instagram was the #1 platform where sextortionists meet kids, as well as the top platform where these predators threaten to share and actually share the images of the kids they are blackmailing. As the top social media platform for sextortion, Instagram should be investing in preventing and reporting this crime. They’re not.

Read more here and TAKE ACTION! Help us protect children online. #endmetasextortion

Middle- and high-school students across the country are chugging energy drinks like water.

Read more here.

The Negative Effects of Technology on Children