IWF urges young people to get help as criminals target younger children in ‘sextortion’ scams

Tamsin McNally, Hotline Manager at the IWF, appeared live on National BBC Breakfast news to warn about the increasing prevalence of “sextortion” online.

She said organised gangs of criminals are deliberately targeting young people in a bid to get them to share nude or sexual imagery of themselves. This is then used in an aggressive campaign of blackmail to extort money from them.

Speaking on September 12, Ms McNally said: “We have definitely seen an increase in reports from young people themselves, reporting exactly this kind of crime, this financially motivated sextortion.”

She told presenters Naga Munchetty and Charlie Stayt how her team at the IWF is seeing younger and younger children, including some as young as 11, being targeted by criminals in this way. She urged children and young people to use the Report Remove service to self-report imagery which may have got out of control.

The IWF can then remove and block sexual imagery, preventing it being shared far and wide and taking the power away from the criminals looking to exploit young people.

Ms McNally said: “I want to tell any children who are watching today is that you are not alone in this. If this happens, there is help out there. It is not your fault.” 

Watch the BBC video clip here: 

Clip provided by BBC Breakfast.

Read the full article here.