In a news report on NBC News it warns parents about how sexual predators are using every scheme possible to lure teenagers and younger children into a web of blackmailing which will bring shame to the children. When a teenager or a younger child has access to the Internet a sexual predator’s greatest desire is to make friends and to build up their trust; and once they’ve made friends they’ll ask them to send a picture to them and bingo, they’re caught up in their deceiving web.
Once the predator gets the picture they threaten to blackmail them by placing their picture on the Internet if they don’t send them some lewd pictures. Once they have a lewd picture the predator blackmails them into sending more and more lewd pictures. This type of scheme is nothing more than what is known as sextortion and this is a primary worry for parents and authorities because of the dangers to the children.
Michelle Collins, vice president of the exploited children division of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has said, “We’re talking about children with a lot of privacy and a lot of technology; and they’re at a sexually curious age.”
Federal authorities has revealed information about a five-week crackdown which led to the capture of 255 suspected child predators and among them two men are believed to be sextortionists and having dozens of victims between them; and one is a former high school cheerleading coach.
The victims who are normally drawn into this web were 12 to 16 years old and living in nine states.
Experts state that extortion usually starts with children in their tween or early teenager years and they meet their predator innocently on the Internet in a chat site or a social media; and they begin chatting and becoming friends; and the predator wins them over and the teen or child builds a trust between them; and eventually, their predator convinces them to take lewd racy photos of their bodies and to send them to him.
Once a predator gets a teen or child’s photos they use them to blackmail them. The predator begins to threaten them if they do not begin to send them their lewd photos; they threaten to send their photos to their parents and their friends or to publish them on the Internet to expose them to the whole world for them to view; and the teen or child children’s become frightened and they follow their predators orders to provide them more and racier photos.
The FBI had a case in Indianapolis where a man pretended to be a young woman on Facebook and making friend contacts with teenage girls and offering to trade self-made photos with them.
The authorities in Alabama have sentenced a man to 35 years in prison for a massive sextortion scheme. The man worked in such a way as to gain the confidence and trust of young girls in at least six states, posing as a new kid in town and who was alone, struggling and trying to meet some new friends.
Authorities stated once the predator receives the young girls confidence and trust, he begins his come-on for more personal racy pictures of them. Once he obtains the racy photos he begins his blackmail demands for more and more of the racy type photos.
John Morton, director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced a crackdown on Monday, July 15, 2013; and he stated, “Predators take advantage of that misstep; and teenagers make a lot of missteps.”
Authorities are concerned since the technological nature of sextortion is making it easier for predators to victimize an enormous number of children with the U.S. and also around the world.
The immigration agency announced on Monday, July 15, 2013 that one of the cases they were handling indicated that a Puerto Rican man had extorted approximately 80 children and this included a girl in California and the Netherlands.
Prosecutors said the man, Richard Finkbiner, was using a site called, “Omegle” and it offers random and anonymous one-on-one chats; and teens believe they were watching a live video of an other person performing a sex act.
Instead the Prosecutors said, “Finkbiner was showing them recordings; and when the teens would perform sex acts by using their own cameras, he then threatened and advised them he would upload their own recordings if they did not make him more of the lewd and racy recordings.”
In my personal opinion this is a horrendous and dreadful act toward innocent immature children who are being lured into committing themselves to a predator for his/her own self-gratification and benefit. When a predator lures a youngster into their web it is an act of sexual abuse of a child; and it is a disgusting lewd act and it is cruel to take away a child’s innocence. Innocent children are in the midst of seeking to find confidence, maturity, and their identities and they’re vulnerable and interested in meeting their first “real trusted” friend.
Parents there are ways for people to prevent this from happening to children and it is by being aware of what children are doing on the Internet and to warn children to be aware of any person who is trying to lure them into trusting them. Advise children to “never” send a photograph to a “stranger.” Tell them there are predators on the Internet who try to lure teens and younger children into their web of trust because once the “stranger” wins them over they’ll begin to blackmail them for lewd pictures.
Writer of this article is Barbara Kasey Smith and it is based on an NBC News Report.
Source:
NBC News