SASKATOON - The Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation Unit is warning parents and children to be aware of the rising trend of “sextortion” type incidents in Saskatoon and across Canada.
Most commonly, offenders engage teenage males through chat based social media platforms, often purporting to be a young girl of a similar age to those they are targeting. Offenders establish a rapport with their victims, often flattering them or pretending they’re in some of kind of relationship, before sending what they suggest are intimate images of themselves.
They will then coerce their victims into sending sexualised personal images back and once received, the offender threatens to send the images to the young person’s family and friends. They will then extort the youth for money to stop this from occurring.
Sask ICE has received over a dozen reports of this type occurrence in the last month. Suspects in these cases are often overseas, are difficult to identify and prosecute.
Parents are encouraged to have age-appropriate conversations with their child around personal safety online and what to do if they find themselves in a situation that makes them feel uncomfortable.
To learn more about the prevention of child exploitation as well as support for those impacted by child exploitation, visit: cybertip.ca
For Sextortion specific information, visit: cybertip.ca/en/online-harms/sextortion/
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