Children are reporting online sextortion attempts in record numbers in the UK, as campaigners urge tech companies to do more to stamp out the crime.
The Report Remove service, which allows children to flag intimate images or videos of themselves that have appeared, or could appear, online, said it received 394 reports from under-18s last year of blackmail attempts after sending sexual images to predators. The figure is 34% higher than in 2024.
Sextortion is the term for when a person is manipulated into sending an explicit selfie or video to a predator, who then threatens to publish it online unless the victim sends money or further intimate images. Boys aged 14 to 17 accounted for 98% of the blackmail victims.
Read the full article at The Guardian.
