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New campaign launched to help protect young people from harmful online sextortion
Created: 20/11/2024
News/Events Category: Children and Families
This item will show under the following categories: Health and Social Care
A powerful new campaign to help protect young people from harmful sextortion has been launched today across Scotland.
The initiative is funded and supported by Scottish Government and Police Scotland and has been developed and run by Fearless, the youth service of the charity Crimestoppers.
Sextortion is a developing threat and a relatively new form of online blackmail.
It’s where criminals threaten to share nude or semi-nude photographs of their victim (often to the victim’s personal contacts on social media) if money isn’t paid or if the victim fails to comply with some other harmful demand. The image may be a real photo taken by the victim or a fake image that the criminal has created to pursue blackmail.
The campaign comes after the number of global sextortion cases reported to the US National Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) more than doubled in 2023, rising to 26,718 compared to 10,731 the year before.
The Fearless campaign will target young people of all genders aged 13-21 living in Scotland, but a large proportion of cases have involved male victims aged 14-18. 91% of victims in UK sextortion cases dealt with by the Internet Watch Foundation in 2023 were male.
This campaign has been designed to reach young people through TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram and emphasises that any young person can be affected. They’re encouraged to know that if this happens to them, it’s not their fault, they are not alone, and that help is there for them.
A second strand of the campaign is offering advice to adults who work with and look after young people. Its aim is to increase their own awareness of this crime whilst reassuring them that help is available should this happen to their young person.
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