Rizzle Kicks front-man Jordan Stephens has spoken out about why he purposely got sextorted by online scammers.
As part of a Channel 4 documentary set to air later this week, Stephens investigates the growing issue of young men who are extorted with their own nude photos.
Stephens, who recently reformed Rizzle Kicks with Harley Alexander-Sule after ten years, is the presenter of the programme and got involved himself to show what it’s like.
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In Hunting My Sextortion Scammer: UNTOLD, Stephens sets up multiple Instagram accounts and allows bot accounts posing as women to send him messages.
To the relief of Stephens’ partner, Little Mix singer Jade Thirwall, Stephens doesn’t actually use nudes of himself and sets up fake accounts with AI-generated nudes to exchange with the bots.
He then shows how the bots begin aggressively demanding money or else they will send the pictures to everyone linked to the account. They purposely target young men, with particular focus bizarrely on people in sports teams who are perceived to be more likely to pay.
The documentary focuses in part on the case of Murray Dowey, a 16-year-old boy who took his own life after being sextorted by an online bot.
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When asked about meeting with Dowey’s brothers in an exclusive interview with LADbible, Stephens said: “It was really heartbreaking, especially his youngest brother. It was really tough.”
He went on to admit it forced him to consider if it was even ethical to be letting him speak, but ultimately realised that his brothers wanted to be interviewed, saying: "He's a f**king brave boy, and it was really f**king sad, and we both cried.
“All we can do is hope that something that tragic can end up saving lives in another way.”
After getting himself sextorted on a fake account, Stephens sets a trap in the form of an online gift card they have rigged to give away the location of whoever is scamming them.
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He ultimately finds the location in Nigeria, West Africa, and travels there with a security team to try and find and confront his scammer.
When asked about why he agreed to the doc, Stephens explained that it came out of nowhere, but that it fit with his mission to try and champion young men.
He said: “There's a lot of focus, sometimes understandably, on the worst versions of men and the worst versions of boys. So, when they called me and said, ‘we found a crime that almost specifically targets young boys’, that was important to me to be part of, because I would consider myself an advocate now for men and boys.”
When in Nigeria, Stephens interviewed others who carry out online extortion work, referred to in Lagos as ‘Yahoo Boys’.
The boys explained to Stephens the perilous financial situation they find themselves in, stating that one scam can pay a month of their rent.
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The Rizzle Kicks star explained that he felt it revealed how nuanced an issue it is, as on one side it's an awful issue facing young men that can even lead to their deaths.
He stated on the other side, however, that ‘from their perspective, this is an opportunity to earn a little bit of extra money because it's so hard to earn money in a country rife with wealth inequality’.
He went on to add: “To be honest, you know, it's a cautionary tale. Like our country right now is going through growing wealth inequality.”
The documentary is a scary watch in terms of its exposure of the state of perils facing young people online in the UK, and eventually sees Jordan confront his scammer face-to-face.
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When asked about the links to Adolescence in the documentary in its exposing of perils online for young people, Stephens said: “I'll be real man, in terms of Adolescence and young boys.. It's like, there's a consequence to shutting youth centres, shutting spaces where young people can learn skills, be guided by mentors, and be creative and have an outlet that isn't under the pressure of a curriculum or their parents.”
He pointed to how, in the absence of third spaces in the UK, online spaces will fill that void.
Hunting My Sextortion Scammer: UNTOLD will be available to stream on Channel 4 from Wednesday, July 16.
Topics: Channel 4, TV and Film, TV, Documentaries, Sex and Relationships, Social Media
Michael Slavin