A new school year brings a new warning from local law enforcement about the growing threat of online predators targeting students for sextortion.
The Bucks County Sheriff’s Office is warning parents and students about the rising threat of online sextortion and citing an increase in cases as children return to school with internet-enabled devices.
The warning follows trends highlighted by the FBI after a significant increase in cases where children and teenagers are coerced into sending explicit images online.
Sextortion often begins on social media, gaming sites and messaging apps, where predators misrepresent their identities to build trust. Once compromising images are obtained, perpetrators use them to blackmail victims, demanding more images or financial payments under the threat of public exposure…