Financially Motivated Sexual Extortion: Alert for partners

Financially Motivated Sexual Extortion: Alert for partners

The National Crime Agency have released an alert for partners in relation to the increase in financially motivated sexual extortion: nca_financially_motivated_sexual_extortion_alert_education_eng.pdf (ceopeducation.co.uk)

Globally, there has been a large increase in reports of children and young people being forced into paying money or meeting another financial demand (such as purchasing a pre-paid gift card) after an offender has threatened to release nudes or semi-nudes of them. This is financially motivated sexual extortion, a type of online blackmail often referred to in the media as ‘sextortion’. It is a form of child sexual abuse.

Financially motivated sexual extortion is usually carried out by organised crime groups (OCGs) based overseas who are typically motivated by money. These groups target all ages and genders however, a large proportion of cases have involved male victims aged 14-18.

What we would like you to do:

• Develop your understanding of financially motivated sexual extortion using this alert and read the recently updated ‘Sharing nudes and semi-nudes’ guidance published by the UK Council for Internet Safety
• Refer concerns, if disclosed or discovered, to local police and/or local authority children’s services through your safeguarding procedures
• Avoid using victim-blaming language and support children and young people in getting their images removed
• Whilst the responsibility is not on the child, know how you can support children and young people to understand how they can respond safely to requests or pressure to provide nude or semi-nude
  images or videos.

A list of useful resources have been made available via the UK Safer Internet Centre Sextortion – Resources – UK Safer Internet Centre