Nearly one in 10 UK parents say their child has been blackmailed online, with threats ranging from threats of releasing intimate photographs to exposing details about someone’s private life.
The NSPCC child protection charity also found that one in five parents know a child who has experienced online blackmail, while two in five said they rarely or never talked to their children about the topic.
The national crime agency has said it is receiving more than 110 reports of child sexual exploitation attempts every month, where criminal gangs trick teenagers into sending their intimate photos and then blackmail them.
Agencies across the UK, US and Australia have confirmed that the number of sextortion cases involving teenage boys and young adult men being targeted by cyber-criminal gangs based in West Africa or South-East Asia is increasing, some of which have ended in tragedy. Murray Dovey, 16, of Dunblane, Scotland, killed himself in 2023 after becoming the victim of sextortion on Instagram, and Dinal de Alwis, 16, killed herself in Sutton, south London, in October 2022 after being blackmailed over nude photos.
The NSPCC based its findings on a survey of more than 2,500 parents and said tech companies were “falling short in their duty to protect children”.
Rani Govender, NSPCC policy manager, said: “Children deserve to be safe online, and this should be built into the core structure of these platforms, rather than being shut down after the harm has been done.”
The NSPCC’s definition of blackmail includes threatening to release an intimate image or video of a child, or something the victim wanted to keep private, such as their sexuality. The information could be obtained with consent or it could be obtained by coercion, manipulation, or using artificial intelligence.
The perpetrators may be strangers, such as a sextortion gang, or someone the child knows, such as a friend or classmate. The blackmailer may also demand various things in exchange for not sharing information, such as money, more images, or staying in the relationship.
The NSPCC said that its definition of blackmail overlaps with sextortion but covers a wider range of scenarios. “We chose the term ‘blackmail’ in our research because it allows us to include other types of extortion using information that a child may want to keep private (for example their sexuality, images showing them without religious garb) as well as both sexual and non-sexual demands and threats,” the charity said.
The report also advised against “sharing”, which refers to parents sharing photos and information of their children online.
Experts recommend telling kids what the danger of sextortion looks like and being aware of who they’re talking to online. They also recommend creating everyday opportunities for children to talk to adults, such as during meals together or during regular car trips, so that teens feel they have a place where they can tell if they have been targeted by blackmail.
“Knowing how to talk about online blackmail in an age-appropriate way and creating an environment where children feel safe to come forward without fear of judgment can make a big difference,” Govender said.
The NSPCC also interviewed young people about why they might choose not to disclose a blackmail attempt to their parent or carer. According to responses, reasons for not disclosing the crime included feeling embarrassed, preferring to talk to a friend first, and feeling that they could “handle it themselves”.
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