The concept that every tool can double as a weapon has never felt more true than in the context of the internet. In my lifetime, we’ve witnessed the mind-blowing rapid evolution of the digital era. In about 30 years, we’ve transitioned from actively seeking answers to our questions, to having the answers to everything in our pocket. It’s a gift, it’s a curse. Of all the ways our interconnected world has shown its ugly side, perhaps the most reprehensible is in the exploitation of women and kids.
What’s Happening?
Almost since the inception of the internet and its ubiquitous adoption into our homes, exploitation has been a lurking presence. Early online dating came with warnings urging women to meet potential matches in safe spaces. Chat rooms quickly filled with middle schoolers, but also adults posing as middle schoolers. Users caught on quickly to the risks and changed their habits accordingly. As the technology has become more sophisticated, though, so too has the danger.
Each time technology leaps forward, our engagement with it changes. Two of the most recent developments that have impacted our habits have been the mainstreaming of AI (artificial intelligence) and the general acceleration of communication through social media platforms. Both play heavily into the online exploitation and extortion schemes, dubbed “sextortion” by the FBI, that have monopolized the dark corners of our online experience in recent years. The FBI quantifies sextortion as a means by which online predators elicit sexually explicit imagery from people, particularly children. It expands the definition to “financial sextortion” when those photos and videos are then used to blackmail the victim into sending money in an effort to prevent the images from online circulation.
Historically, these schemes played out over weeks or months, but as our online usage, access and capabilities have increased, the incidents have sped up. An online conversation sparks between a child and, what they assume is another child. Flirtation ensues and one user asks the other for an incriminating photo.
The threats begin the instant the predator receives the photo. Entire cases have played out, and lives have been wrecked, in under an hour. According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, more than 21.7 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation were filed in 2020. The pandemic created a scenario in which more people, children and adults, were online more frequently, exploding the field of opportunity for predators. In that year alone, the rate of these types of incidents increased by 97.5%, according to the center.
The more recent use of ‘civilian’ AI has again changed the playing field. Now, predators don’t even need to necessarily elicit an actual image or video to wield their threat. In June, the FBI issued a warning about the use of deepfake videos that target minors and non-consenting adults. Technology has improved to the point where the extortionist only needs an image of a person’s face to create an entire sexually explicit video. And in reality, is there a single person on the planet whose face can’t be found somewhere online? The problem with this technological advancement becomes exponentially worse when one realizes that it is easily accessible to all and available online from numerous open-source offerings. What does open-source mean? Anyone with access to wifi, a phone or laptop and some passing tech experience can produce and distribute (or threaten to distribute) these fake sex videos and images featuring children and/or non-consenting adults.
When the whole world has means and opportunity, all that’s left is motive.
Who’s at risk?
Jordan DeMay is sadly in the most oft-targeted demographic these days — teenage boys. A high school student from Michigan, DeMay was a football player and homecoming king, living his life seemingly with few cares. That all changed in an instant. The terrible plot that ultimately led to the death of this 17-year-old boy played out, in its entirety, in less than six hours.
On a March night in 2022, DeMay got online late at night to scroll social media, nothing unusual. He linked up with Instagram user dani.robertts and the conversation escalated. DeMay sent a nude photo to what he assumed was a flirtatious woman. Immediately, two brothers demanded $1,000 with the threat of sharing the image with all DeMay’s friends and family. The agonizing conversation thread continued with DeMay sending what he could — $300. The brothers pressed and DeMay told them he was so distraught he was considering suicide. Still they pressed, encouraging him multiple times to take his own life. Sadly, before his parents had even awoken to a problem, he did just that.
His mother Jennifer Buta was shocked beyond belief. It was only days later, when a friend of DeMay shared the fact that they had received a nude image of the boy, that a motivation for his suicide became clear. Authorities were able to trace the extortionists through the web and across the ocean to their home in Nigeria.
More than a year later, in November 2022, the Ogoshi brothers, Samson and Samuel, were indicted by a U.S. grand jury. They were extradited to the United States, and pleaded not guilty at their Aug. 17 arraignment in Michigan. They’re now awaiting trial, one that concerned parents and authorities hope will lead to a precedent-setting conviction.
It’s natural for children and teenagers to engage online, as it’s increasingly becoming the main method of communication with each subsequent generation. Online forums, apps and games all provide young people with a space that feels uniquely theirs. In these platforms, by removing face-to-face contact, shy tendencies can melt away, but with deadly results. Young users can engage more confidently, and in healthy scenarios, more authentically. But the risks are high, especially for teenage boys who are now, far and away, the most targeted group. To date, more than 3,000 male teen victims in the United States have been recognized in operations originating outside the country. As tactics have become increasingly aggressive, and less response time is available, another sad record has jumped: Financial sextortion schemes targeting young people have officially been linked to more than a dozen suicides, with dozens more suspected correlations.
What Can We Do?
In the face of some devastating statistics, it’s hard to know what preventative measures will actually prove helpful. Thankfully though, advocates are shifting their response and recommendations as quickly as predators are evolving their tactics. At this point, most kids already have been exposed to relevant information about online safety. Unfortunately, much of it feels tired, or is simply not being internalized by the potential victims.
When most kids first hear these warnings, there is (hopefully) no context for them to relate to it.
So it’s easy for them to adopt a “can’t-happen-to-me” attitude. Kids generally toss warnings about online safety in the same bin as bike helmet reminders — practices that hold up when parents are watching, but that can slide a bit when heads are turned. To most kids, warnings are a kindness, a challenge or just white noise. New research shows the answer may lie in peer-to-peer advocacy. Kids listen to their friends more than parents and other adults, so many schools are creating clubs wherein student leaders are designated to receive tools for talking to their friends about potential threats.
Technology and legislation are also catching up. Nearly all school computers have programs that recognize nude images, threatening phrases and other flags. Parents also can now install numerous apps and software on their family’s and kids’ personal devices to accomplish the same goal. Very recent legislation has also enabled public school systems in several states to adopt a mandatory course in online safety.
As with any threat, the best tools are awareness and caution. Parents need to be wary of their children’s online activity, watching and managing remotely, but also talking openly about everyday experiences. Kids need to know they can tell their parents if they’re being sextorted. And parents need to know how common the practice is, and how vulnerable their children are.
Adults need to stay careful with their own habits as well, and realize that the risks exist regardless of age.
