JACKSON, Tenn. (WBBJ) – The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) recently released new data highlighting the continued and growing threat of financial sextortion targeting children and teens.
In 2025 alone, NCMEC received more than 50,000 reports of financially motivated sextortion. That’s an average of 137 reports every day. This represents a dramatic increase from the more than 36,000 reports received in 2024, underscoring the rapidly growing scale of this crime.
“While the newly released numbers are deeply concerning, unfortunately, we are not at all surprised. Those are national statistics. Currently, our four agents assigned to investigate these types of crimes are collectively trying to identify and locate more than 150 child victims of sextortion. Those are just the cases in the state of Tennessee assigned to TBI,” said Assistant Special Agent in Charge Robert Burghardt, who oversees the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Squad…