Sextortion in Australia: Teens are Being Targeted in 2023

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Australians have been warned that a sickening, sexually-charged text message scam is targeting an increasing number of children.

Reports of sextortion cases involving Australian teenagers are rising, with authorities highlighting the heinous consequences of this criminal behaviour.

What is Sextortion?

Sextortion is a type of online blackmail in which the victim is duped into sending the scammer sexual or compromising images of themselves.

The scammer then makes a series of demands on the victim, often involving large sums of money, and threatens to share the images if they do not comply.

Teenage Sextortion in Australia

Teenagers have become major targets of sextortion, with boys being the most common victims, though any child can be targeted.

Scammers create a fake profile, usually posing as a teenage girl, and contact potential victims via social media direct messages. Once a victim has started a conversation, the scammer will usually ask them to continue the conversation on a different app.

This is frequently the point at which the conversation becomes highly sexualized and the victim is coerced into sending sexual images. After receiving these images, the offender will use them to blackmail the victim, threatening to share them with their friends and family unless they pay.

In some cases, offenders have photoshopped images to make the victim appear to be in an even more vulnerable position.

Following payment of the initial sum, the offender will continue to blackmail the victim for as much money as possible before moving on to the next victim.

Throughout 2022, the Australian Centre for Child Exploitation (ACCCE) received over 100 reports per month about online sextortion scams targeting Australian teenagers. Victims of these scams may become so distressed that they commit self-harm or even suicide.

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