Teen boys increasingly targeted by sextortionists: Kelowna RCMP

There’s been an increase in the number of sextortion cases involving teen boys between the age of 14 to 17, Kelowna RCMP say.

“Victims are receiving friend requests through popular social media services, then engage in conversations which usually include compliments and flirtatious exchanges,” RCMP said in a press release.

“Offenders will then ask for an intimate image of the victim, specifically to include their face. Once the intimate image is sent, the offender begins threatening and attempting to extort the victim.”

1:56 Province to introduce legislation over intimate images being shared without consent

Mounties said the offender will demand money from the victim and threaten that if it is not sent, the image will be shared on the internet. In some cases, the demands increase even if money is sent.

“The increase in the number of complaints at the local detachment may be a result of youth spending more time online during summer break. It is recognized that the number of reported incidents to the police is not a true representation of this crime likely due to the personal nature of these incidents and reluctance to report them for fear of embarrassment,” said Cpl. Tim Russell of the vulnerable persons unit.

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“Our message is simple — Don’t share sexually explicit images with anyone, especially online as you have now forfeited complete control of that image.”

Investigators would like to remind teens and their parents that this crime is often orchestrated from foreign countries.

2:35 Canada logs more than 70 sextortion complaints every week

“To be completely frank, the situation is completely out of control. We can barely keep up with the sextortion reports that are coming in to us,” said Signy Arnason, associate executive direct of the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, in an April interview with Global News.

Nigeria, the Ivory Coast and the Philippines are “critical jurisdictions” where alleged perpetrators are successfully victimizing people, often for financial gain, Arnason said.

Statistics Canada data reports a nearly 80 per cent increase in cyber-related extortion offences in 2020 from the year before. Arnason says that number has continued to rise.

Canadian Centre for Child Protection has great resources including a short video geared towards teens called DontGetSextorted.ca

— with files from Neethu Garcha