What is Sextortion?

Federal officials have used the term sextortion to refer to cases where people, mostly teenagers, are blackmailed over explicit photos. The photos are generally obtained via cell phone text messages, email attachments, web cam sessions, and chat rooms. The blackmailer finds the contact information for the person in the compromising photos. Then he demands more explicit photos and videos from the person in exchange for not spreading the original photos to the teen's friends, family, and school peers.

Note: I used the pronoun "he" because so far only men have been documented as the culprits of sextortion cases.