Sextortion: Pervs Send Phone Text, Pics and Blackmail Others

You have to wonder why anyone would take a picture of their nude body or parts, and then send a text message over the air with those same pictures to another person. Do these people stop and ask themselves if maybe they should stop a moment and think about the repercussions of taking such a picture, and then sending that picture to someone else.

The Nightmare of a 17-year-old Girl

Just about every computer sold today comes with a webcam. Take the story of the man in Indianapolis who convinced three teenage girls visiting a chat room to flash their breasts on the webcam. After a week, one of the young girls got some threatening emails. The emails stated that the chat room webcam pictures of their breasts would be posted to her MySpace friends accounts unless she agreed to pose for some more explicit photos and videos.

Just a scared teen with no where to turn, she went along with the threatening man a few times. Finally the police and federal agents got involved in the case, found the man who was making the threats and taking the pictures. The 19-year-old man from Maryland was indicted in June on sexual exploitation charges. These sort of crimes of sexual extortion are called "sextortion," and they are on the rise.

Send Text, Put Head in Lion's Mouth

These days, it seems that just about everyone is texting, especially young kids and teens. To send a text is so easy, and has become so commonplace that some kids and adults are not stopping to think about what they are actually doing. A phone text with a picture attached can literally change the life and destiny of the person sending it.

Perry Aftab, a lawyer and advocate for child safety online says about sextortion, "Kids are putting their head in the lion's mouth every time they do this." He also said that teens are the easiest targets because they are so easy to intimidate and are usually too embarrassed to ask for help. On top of that, these perverts are more than willing to back up their threats and follow through with posting the pictures to online chat rooms and send them in e-mails.

What to do to Protect Yourself and Your Kids

The most important thing here is open communication between kids, teens, and parents. It is imperative that your kids know they can come to you as a parent, and share this information. I suggest even sitting down with your kids and telling them, assuring them that no matter what happens, they can tell you anything - and you will still love them. Do not assume your kids already know this.

Next, sit down and have an open discussion about people who use pictures or text to blackmail and extort money or worse. Make sure they know that you know what sextortion and sexting are. (If by chance you are unaware of these terms, get online and you will soon be informed.) Detail for your kids the process of telling you if something like this is happening, or has already happened. As a parent, you need to let your child know that they are safe and that you will take care of this. There have been a number of kids committing suicide because they are so embarrassed and too afraid to tell anyone about this. Immediately call the police and get the authorities involved as soon as possible.

One more thing. As parents, you need to know that there are some kids out there who for one reason or another, simply cannot talk to their parents about something like this. Encourage your own kids to let you know if this has happened to their friends, too. The most important thing in this type of situation is to get help quickly. Talk to other parents and spread the word of this insidious crime that starts as innocently as a send text or phone text message.

Educate yourself on this issue:

MSNBC article here

HuffPost article here