Understanding Sextortion: Protecting Children at Home and at School

It Can Happen to Anyone!

Sixteen-year-old Ben thought he was becoming friends with another teenager after accepting a request on social media. Within a short time, the person behind the account had copied a photograph from Ben's profile and used artificial intelligence to create a fake explicit image. Soon after, everything changed. Ben received a message threatening to send the AI-generated image to his family, friends, and classmates unless he paid hundreds of pounds.

At one secondary school, staff began receiving alarming messages after criminals copied photos of their pupils from the school website and social media. The images, originally shared for events and achievements, were taken and manipulated using artificial intelligence to create fake explicit content involving students. The offenders then issued a blackmail demand, threatening to circulate the fabricated images online unless money was paid.

These true stories reflect a growing form of online abuse. Sextortion is a form of blackmail in which someone is threatened or coerced using intimate images or videos. Criminals may persuade victims to share images, steal existing photographs from social media, or use artificial intelligence to create convincing fake images before demanding money, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or more images. They rely on fear, shame, and embarrassment to stop victims from asking for help.

Offenders are not always anonymous adults in faraway locations. They can also be children or teenagers trying to make easy money.

The Scale of the Problem (Global Picture)

Sextortion is a global safeguarding issue affecting children throughout the world, and it continues to grow at an alarming rate. Analysis of financially motivated sextortion reports submitted to the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline found that approximately 90 percent of reported victims were males aged 14 to 17, suggesting that adolescent boys are a particularly vulnerable group in reported case (“Trends in Financial Sextortion”).

In Latin America, UNICEF, ECPAT International, and INTERPOL’s Disrupting Harm studies indicate that technology facilitated child sexual exploitation is substantially underreported, as many children do not disclose their experiences due to shame, fear, embarrassment, or uncertainty about where to seek help (“Disrupting Harm”).

In Eastern and Southern Africa, UNICEF Innocenti's Disrupting Harm research found that up to 20 percent of internet-using children aged 12 to 17 experienced online sexual abuse within a one-year period, including requests for sexual images and online sexual extortion (sextortion) (“Online Risk and Harm for Children”).

In Asia, recent investigative research has linked scam compounds in Southeast Asia to hundreds of reported child sextortion cases, showing how organized criminal networks are increasingly involved in financially motivated sextortion targeting children (“A Potential Nexus”).

In the United States, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received 26,718 reports of financial sextortion in 2023, up from 10,731 in 2022, showing a sharp increase in reported cases (“NCMEC Releases New Sextortion Data”).

In response to rising online child sexual abuse and exploitation In Europe, the EU is strengthening laws that expand offenses covering grooming, solicitation, and coercion, including behaviors such as online sexual coercion and extortion (sextortion) as defined by Europol (“Combatting Child Sexual Abuse”).

Schools are also reviewing policies and practices related to how student photographs are shared online, and they have emphasized the fact that children do not need to share intimate images themselves to become victims of online exploitation. Recognizing the growing threat, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Command (CEOP) issued a national alert to schools in the UK in 2024 about financially motivated sextortion. Despite this warning, research a year later found that 74 percent of boys still did not know what sextortion was, highlighting the urgent need for training of students and parents that is actually understood and remembered.

Across available reporting and research, financial sextortion cases reveal troublingly consistent patterns, even as experts stress that the true scale is likely far greater than suggested. Underreporting remains a major concern in child sexual exploitation research, with many children not coming forward due to stigma, shame, and fear of being judged or not believed (“NCMEC Releases New Sextortion Data”; “Online Risk and Harm for Children”).

How Can We Respond to This?

Sextortion can affect ANY child or young person who goes online, whether they are using online games, Discord, social media, messaging apps, livestreaming platforms, video chat services, online forums, or even platforms and games that are advertised as moderated or child friendly. It can happen on apps such as Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, WhatsApp, Facebook, Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, and many others. Offenders often move conversations to private messages, but contact can begin in public or moderated spaces. This makes sextortion a safeguarding issue that requires shared responsibility between families, schools, online platforms, and wider communities.

The most effective protection comes from early, honest, and age-appropriate conversations about online life, helping children understand risks, recognize manipulation, and feel confident seeking help without fear of blame or punishment. Parents and cargivers should remain continually aware of what their child is doing online by taking an active interest in the games they play, the apps they use, who they communicate with, and how they spend their time online. Appropriate supervision and regular conversations about online activity are essential. In today's digital world, a child's bedroom is no longer automatically a safe space if online activity is unsupervised, as offenders can gain access through internet-connected devices regardless of a child's physical location. Ongoing parental engagement helps identify concerns early and reinforces safe online behaviors. Above all, children need a clear and consistent message from the adults around them: if something happens online, they will be listened to, believed, and supported without fear of blame or punishment. Questions to ask yourself:

• Have I spoken to my child or students age-appropriately about sextortion?
• Am I someone a child would feel safe disclosing sextortion to without fear?
• Has my school reviewed and strengthened its policies on the safe use of images online?

Return, for a moment, to the stories that opened this article. Imagine how differently each one could end if a child knew they could speak without fear, if a parent recognized the warning signs, or if a trusted adult at school simply asked the right question at the right time. These are not rare events. They are happening every day. The difference between lasting harm and early intervention is often one conversation, one trusted adult, and one child knowing they will be believed. That is the message every young person deserves to hear, and the responsibility every adult shares.

Useful guidance for parents:

• “Did You Encounter Content Online That You Suspect to Be Illegal?,” INHOPE, https://inhope.org/what-we-do/how-to-report
• “IWF Annual Report, 2021,” Internet Watch Foundation, https://www.iwf.org.uk/about-us/who-we-are/annual-report-2021/ Internet Watch Foundation. Click on the relevant country at top right of the page and search for “sextortion.”
• “What Can Parents Do If their Child Is a Victim of Sextortion?,” European Union, February 4, 2025, https://better-internet-for-kids.europa.eu/en/news/what-can-parents-do-if-their-child-victim-sextortion.
• “What is Sextortion? Guide to Tackling Sexual Coercion,” Internet Matters,  https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/what-is-sextortion/

Useful guidance for schools:

• “Protecting Your Setting’s Images from AI Manipulation and Abuse,” UK Safer Internet Centre, https://saferinternet.org.uk/guide-and-resource/image-guidance-for-education-settings.

Sources and Further Reading:

• “Combatting Child Sexual Abuse: EU Agrees Stronger Criminal Law Rules and Enhanced Support to Victims,” Council of the European Union, June 22, 2026, https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2026/06/22/combatting-child-sexual-abuse-eu-agrees-stronger-criminal-law-rules-and-enhanced-support-to-victims/
• “Disrupting Harm, Project: Generating High-Quality Evidence on Technology-Facilitated Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Children,” Unicef, https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/projects/disrupting-harm
• “Ending Online Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: Lessons Learned and Promising Practices in Low and Middle Income Countries,” Unicef, December 2021, https://www.unicef.org/documents/ending-online-child-sexual-exploitation-and-abuse
• “NCMEC Releases New Sextortion Data,” National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, April 15, 2024, https://www.ncmec.org/blog/2024/ncmec-releases-new-sextortion-data
• “Trends in Financial Sextortion: An investigation of Sextortion Reports in NCMEC CyberTipline Data,” Thorn, June 24, 2024, https://www.thorn.org/research/library/financial-sextortion/

Africa:

• “Online Risk and Harm for Children in Eastern and Southern Africa,” Unicef, June 2023, https://www.unicef.org/innocenti/reports/online-risk-and-harm-children-eastern-and-southern-africa

Asia:

• “493 Cases of Sextortion Against Children Linked to Notorious Scam Compounds,” Wired, August 19, 2025, https://www.wired.com/story/child-sextorition-scam-compounds-southeast-asia/
• “A Potential Nexus between Forced Scamming and the Financially-Motivated Sextortion of Children,” IJM, https://www.ijm.org/nexus-report

Latin America:

• “Violence against Children and Adolescents in Latin America and the Caribbean: New Data and Solutions,” Unicef, January 2026, https://www.unicef.org/lac/en/reports/violence-against-children-adolescents-latin-america-caribbean-new-data-solutions