Here is the current guidance shared by the Metropolitan Police regarding sextortion after a 14-year-old boy ended his life due to being targeted.
US teenager Caleb Moore tragically ended his own life after believing he'd been flirting with a 'teenage girl' online.
The 14-year-old had been interacting with an account which he believed belonged to a girl his age on TikTok, before the conversation moved over to Snapchat.
The 'girl' then allegedly sent compromising images of herself, prompting Caleb to do the same. Once the teenager sent the images over, the account began to threaten him, demanding that he send over a large sum of money or the photos would be leaked online.
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Following the '35 minute' chat with the girl, Caleb ended his life by shooting himself with a gun.
What happened to Caleb Moore?
According to his mother, Morgan, she believes the account made her son feel like 'his life was over as he had made this mistake'.
"When I got there, Caleb was still alive and breathing but they were unable to resuscitate him so they stopped trying as nothing was working. He passed away in the house and it was very difficult because I wanted to be with him but they wouldn't let me go inside as they didn't want me to see anything," the mother-of-five said.
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"I was hysterical and screaming and begging them to not give up on my boy and let me go to him. I was inconsolable."
An investigation by the El Dorado Police Department in Kansas subsequently revealed and confirmed the conversations between Caleb and the 'girl'.
TikTok told LADbible Group they are committed to making their platform a safe and positive experience for teenagers, adding that users under 16 years old have no access to direct messaging, while Snapchat says they have strong safety settings in place for users aged 13-17, which includes setting their accounts private by default and only allowing communicate with mutually accepted friends or numbers saved to their contacts.
What is sextortion?
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According to the Metropolitan Police, sextortion is defined as a type of online blackmail. Victims are targeted by criminals pretending to be someone else and influenced into sending explicit images of themselves.
Once the victim has shared the images, they're threatened into paying large sums of money or forced into doing further things they don't want to do by perpetrators.
Anyone can become a victim of sextortion, however, the Met Police state that children aged between 15 to 17 and adults under 30 are often at risk.
What should you do if you or someone you know is a victim of sextortion?
Sextortion is never the victim's fault, with the police force urging anyone whose been targeted to report their situation if comfortable.
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It's also important to note that sharing intimate images and videos online without a person's consent is considered revenge porn, which is illegal.
Anyone found guilty of revenge porn faces up to two years in prison and a fine. Adults can report any explicit images shared of themselves to Revenge Porn Online, Revenge Porn Helpline or Stop NCII.
Meanwhile, anyone under 18 is advised to access support through Childline's Report Remove.
How can you try and prevent it?
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According to the Met Police, criminals attempting to commit sextortion will use a fake identity to befriend you, before quickly turning the conversation sexual.
Red flags which suggest you are being targeted by criminals for sextortion include:
- a person you don't know attempting to start a sexual relationship online straight after meeting you
- repeatedly asks you to send sexual images
- claims to have hacked your account or have access to your contacts.
Topics: Crime, Social Media, UK News, US News, Snapchat, TikTok
Brenna Cooper