N.S. parents warned more teens being sextorted online

HALIFAX – More teens are being sextorted online, according to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, which is urging parents to take a closer look at what their children are doing online.

Signy Arnason, the director of Cybertip.ca, the national tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children, said that there have been more than a dozen reports of sextortion within the last few weeks. She said normally there is one report a week, but it would not necessarily be related to sextortion.

“We’re starting to see this trend. It’s on the front end and we want to make parents aware of the issue. We want to get them to start engaging in some important conversations and dialogues with their teen,” she said.

In the situations, the teens meet people through social media sites like Facebook and think the person on the other end is a teen, but it is actually an adult. The conversations then move to Skype, where the teens sexually expose themselves, not realizing they are being secretly recorded. The predator then threatens to share the videos or images online unless the teens pay money, which is often a few hundred dollars.

Arnason said it seems this latest round of sextortion appears to be coming from outside the country.

“There’s a particular group overseas that seems to be responsible for this push at getting money out of kids. They appear to be related incidents to this group,” she said.

Arnason said the victims are from all over the country, range between 14 and 17 years old and are a mix of boys and girls.

“You’re dealing with kids at a certain time in their development. They’re sexually curious. They’re wanting to be more independent,” she said.

The Cybertip.ca director said parents need to recognize that this situation could happen to their child and to create an open dialogue with their children so they are honest with them.

The RCMP Crime Tech Unit in Nova Scotia tells Global News that it is also seeing the alarming trend.

“We certainly are also seeing an increase in luring and sextortion. I can tell you statistically speaking from last year to this year, there’s been a 40 per cent increase in the luring investigations,” said Cpl. Christian Hochhold.

“Anytime there’s an increase in any crime rate, but more specifically targeting youth and child, is extremely alarming from a law enforcement perspective and from the perspective of a parent.”

Hochhold said the RCMP are actively pursuing and ramping up sextortion investigations.

“We are conducting more investigations to catch more of these perpetrators in order to keep our children in our communities and homes safer,” he said.

He stresses parents need to teach their children how to use technology responsibly and to be clear about the possible consequences of online actions.

It’s something that Emily Baker often thinks about; the 18-year-old high school student said she is often approached by predators online.

“I’ve been asked for pictures and asked for videos of explicit stuff and I think it’s just disrespectful, as women, to put yourself out there like that,” she said.

She said she refuses to interact with strangers online.

She calls the encounters disgusting, and many fellow students said they are worried they could also become victims.

“It’s definitely scary because of how realistic it is I guess,” said Aileen Feschuk, 16. “There’s a lot of things that can go wrong all the time but this one is just so common to happen.”

“People I don’t know have tried to friend me but I usually don’t accept,” said Gen Erjavec, 16.

The thought is also terrifying for Judi Risser, who has an 18-year-old daughter.

“It’s completely and utterly disgusting that adults would do that to children,” she said.

Parents can learn more about ways to increase their teen’s safety online at www.needhelpnow.ca. They can also sign up for alerts through Cybertip.ca