The Federal Bureau of Investigation is stepping up its public outreach efforts on the dangers of sextortion aimed at minors in Maryland.
Supervisory Special Agent Amy Ferron with the FBI Baltimore Field Office is leading the mission to get kids and their parents to know sextortion involves an offender coercing a minor to create and send sexually explicit images or videos. An offender gets sexually explicit material from the child, then threatens to release that compromising material unless the victim produces more.
Among the factors that make it particularly heinous is that it can have financial motivation when it leads a child to cooperate with an offender who demands payment in exchange for destroying the illegal content. While victims are usually between 14 to 17 years old, any child can become a victim of this crime.
“These offenders want more of the sexual abuse material and we’ve seen a significant increase in financially motivated sextortion in the past three years,” Ferron said. “This has been primarily from overseas offenders and that has increased year over year, and it’s as broad as the internet itself and not specific to one area. The risk is anywhere a minor has access to the internet. It can also be through applications, games and (social media).”