Social media giants are among a host of companies profiting from a grim new criminal trend of financial extortion in which children are tricked into sending nude images and blackmailed for money, experts have warned.
While extortion online for sexual purposes is not a new phenomenon, monitoring groups say that in early 2022 they noticed a surge in fake online profiles mostly targeting teenage boys – with organised criminals then rapidly demanding monetary payment or threatening to share the images, which can either be real or fake.
In recent weeks, the National Crime Agency has launched a new social media campaign to raise awareness of this emerging threat, warning that in each of the first five months of 2024, British police forces received an average of 117 reports of “sextortion” from under 18’s each month – with the actual figure likely to be far higher.
Now, experts at the University of Edinburgh’s Childlight institute, which works with Interpol to track and combat child sexual exploitation and abuse, have warned that a range of companies are facilitating and profiting from such crimes.
In a new report which tracks how child sexual exploitation and abuse is linked to serious organised crime, Childlight’s researchers warn: “The financial gains not only accrue to the offender.
“By involving and misusing commercial enterprises, such as electronic service providers (social media, messaging apps and video call services) and online payment systems (money transfer services, cryptocurrency and online banking), these institutions become facilitators of the exploitation.
“Hence, these platforms play a role in the sexual exploitation and abuse that occurs on their services – services which have evolved to suit users – and by doing so they facilitate and enable the abuse to occur.”
As advertising is linked to the number of platform users, social media companies can make more money as more people use their platforms, including for purposes linked to the sexual exploitation and abuse of children, the report states. “As a result, there is a financial gain for these sectors and for the offenders, which could be seen as a disincentive to regulate such activities,” the researchers warn in the report shared with The Independent.
Beyond these streams, this crime has also spawned the creation of fee-based companies that provide cybersecurity and reputation management services to victims to combat the offending extorters, the researchers warn.
These fees are often paid-up front and can amount to thousands of dollars – which only further commodifies the sexual abuse content of children by forcing them to pay for a solution to the crime of exploitation committed against them, Childlight warns.
Childlight is now calling for companies making money from the illegal trade to become better at spotting red flags that point to illicit activity – and to face financial penalties if they fail to do so.
Rhiannon-Faye McDonald, head of advocacy at the sexual abuse support charity Marie Collins Foundation, was targeted online at the age of 13 by a sexual predator posing as a teenage girl. Soon afterwards he turned up at her home and abused her in person.
She told The Independent: “The impacts cannot be understated. We have seen many cases reported in the media of victims who have lost their lives as a result of this abuse.
“For most victims and survivors, even with the right support, the impacts are significant and long-lasting. We live with deep feelings of shame, misplaced self-blame, and the fear of being recognised by those who have seen the images or videos of our abuse.”
Ms McDonald added: “This is not a new issue – technology assisted child sexual abuse has been happening for decades already, and yet we are still struggling to address it. Every year we see higher and higher numbers of children abused and child sexual abuse material being shared. As a society it is our responsibility to protect children, and so it really is time that we get a handle on this.
“For too long platforms have favoured profit over safety, and the rising numbers of children being abused is a direct result.”
Experts at the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) – which tracks such cases globally, mainly through mandatory reporting by electronic service providers, such as social media firms – say they first began to notice cases of mostly teenage boys being financially extorted in early 2022.
In the year to June 2024, the agency said it had received an average of 556 reports of financial sextortion per week, amounting to over 28,000 global cases per year. In recent testimony to the US Congress, the NCMEC said it was aware of more than three dozen teenage boys who have taken their lives since 2021 as a result of being victimised by financial “sextortion”.
Childlight has identified tell-tale digital clues that it says should act as red flags to financial institutions and law enforcement, making it easier for them to detect and disrupt abusers. These include spending patterns involving crypto currency, online gaming, online shopping and the purchasing of sexual content online.
In their new report, the researchers call for a system of fines internationally to penalise companies for the role they play in facilitating such abuse.
They are also urging greater regulation of all sectors such as app stores and internet service providers to use all safety tools available – including age assurance, content moderators and technology which can match images being traded against known child sexual abuse material.
“The exploitation of children is not just an atrocity — it is an industry, generating billions of dollars in profits,” said Paul Stanfield, a former director of Interpol and now chief executive of Childlight, which estimates that over 300 million children are targeted annually by at least one form of online abuse.
“This is a market, structured and profitable, designed to generate revenue off the backs of vulnerable children. But markets can be disrupted, and that is where change must begin.”
