Sextortion

Being a supportive friend makes it harder for criminals.

Talk to your mates and tell them that you’ll always be there for them. Nothing is too embarrassing – you accept them for them. This will help them to know that, if they’re victim of sextortion or any other crime, their friends won’t judge them, and that’ll make them feel more confident to speak up about it and get support. If we can reduce the shame around sextortion, then criminals will be less able to blackmail people.

Being digitally savvy

Review your privacy settings - if criminals can’t see who your friends and family are, they’re less likely to be able to make threats to share images or information. Learn more: Privacy Settings | Childnet 

Don’t accept friend requests from people you don’t know. Be alert – they might say they’re a 15-year-old and seem to have a profile picture and content that makes you think that’s true – but they could be an adult criminal sitting overseas, ready to blackmail you.

Deepfake technology gives people the ability to change their face and voice on live video chat      – so don’t think because it’s live it must be true. What is a deepfake? | Internet Matters

Even if someone appears to have mutual friends, if you don’t know them personally, then don’t accept them into your online world.  Sometimes criminals will target a whole group of friends so that they will appear to have lots of mutual friends and that makes people trust them more.

Learn more about phishing scams Phishing and Scams | Childnet

Thinking of sending a nude or been sent one? 

Learn more about all things Sexting and sending nudes | Childline

The blackmailer could be doing this as a full time job. They will probably be doing this to lots of people at the same time. They know exactly how to trick people into sending them pictures or feeling like they need to do what they demand.

Signs to spot:

• They’re moving too fast. They try to develop a relationship with you very quickly. They might be flirty, tell you they like you, or ask for a nude or sexy image or video. Some may even send a nude to you first to build your ‘trust’. 
• They want to live video chat with you and encourage you to share parts of your body and do sexual acts. During this they might record or take screenshots.
• They pressure you to do things you’re not comfortable with. They might repeatedly ask you to do sexual things you don’t feel comfortable with.
• They might tell you they’ve hacked your account or that they have access to your contacts. Some blackmailers might tell you they’ve got nude/semi-nude images or videos from your device – that includes phone, tablet, cloud or other storage.

If anything happens online that makes you feel uncomfortable 

Stop talking to that person – block them across all your social media platforms – get advice from a trusted adult.

Criminals make you feel like you need to act immediately, and that time is running out – that’s not true. Take time to breathe and get help.

Don’t panic. You’re not alone in this, there are people who can help you. Remember, you’re not to blame – the criminal is.

Do not pay or do what they’re demanding. Some victims who do, hear no more about it, others pay and are pressured for more money or to do more things. In some cases, even when money is paid the criminals share the videos or images anyway.  

Do not talk any further to the criminals 

Don’t try to reason with them or talk to them. Put your phone down and don’t read their messages trying to pressure you – it’ll only stress you out even more and there’s no point. Block them on all of your social media platforms and don’t read messages from or accept friend requests from strangers in the meantime – they might try to use a different profile to contact you.

Get support. It doesn’t matter the time of day, even if it’s the middle of the night, tell an adult you live with or contact Childline for confidential advice and support Get Support | Childline

You can also talk to a teacher at school or another adult that you trust.

We know that talking about it can feel like a huge step, but you wouldn’t be judged – it will be ok.

Account Settings

Lockdown your privacy settings across all your social media platforms – turn them to private so only the people you choose can see what you post.

Change the passwords to all of your accounts and emails.

Turn your location settings on Snapchat and all other platforms off so nobody can see where you are.

Go through your friends/followers – remove everyone that you don’t know face to face (where you live or through family connections) and trust.

Don’t delete any messages or your profile – read more about the next steps below.

It’s really important that, if you feel that you can, you take back control of what’s happened and do something about it. This will protect you from your images or video being shared. It might also stop others from going through something similar.

Evidence

Don’t delete anything from the phone or other device that you have used to have contact with the criminal and don’t delete your profile (just ensure you’ve fully locked down your privacy settings as outlined above)

If you feel safe to do so, screenshot the criminal’s profile information and any messages/images that they’ve shared – this will mean you have proof of the conversation even if the criminal deletes messages.

Report it. 

You can do this by calling Police Scotland on 101 or  report it to CEOP    online.

Reporting this crime to the Police gives them the opportunity to investigate and report to the procurator fiscal. The criminal blackmailing you, may have also targeted other people and it allows Police to link the crimes together to build a strong case and try to prevent others from being harmed in the same way.

Reporting it to each of the social media platforms that you have had contact with the person on is important too.

Use the Report Remove Tool

If you’re under 18 you can use Report Remove | Childline to confidentially report sexual images and videos of yourself and get them removed from the internet. You can do this by filling out a simple form – you don’t need to talk to anyone and nobody will find out you used the service.

A trusted adult – someone who looks after you, another family member or someone like a teacher or youth worker.

Police – you can call them on 101 or, if it’s an emergency on 999

CEOP - if you think you’ve been a victim of sextortion or the way someone has been communicating with you online worries you, you can also report it to CEOP. One of their experienced and understanding Child Protection Advisors will be there to make sure you get the help that you or your friend needs. You can make a report online for yourself or do it for a friend. You can also ask a trusted adult to help you.

Childline is a free service there to help you with any situation you’re dealing with, no matter how big or small you think it is. You can call on 0800 1111 or chat 1-2-1 with a counsellor online by visiting their website childline.