In my time as Australia’s eSafety’s Commissioner, we have seen a pronounced upward trend in complaints across pretty much every category of online harm.
Amongst the most striking, however, has been the ongoing increase in reports of sexual extortion: from 432 reports in 2018/19 to 6,187 reports in 2022/23, a 1,332% increase according to recent analysis of our data.*
The growing prevalence of this insidious practice – also known as sextortion – together with its potentially devastating impact on those affected has prompted some renewed thinking at eSafety about ways we can better respond.
Sextortion is a form of blackmail where someone threatens to share intimate images unless that person gives in to their demands.
It has different subtypes and dimensions. ‘Financial sexual extortion’, probably the best known, tends to target young men and is commonly perpetrated by overseas criminal enterprises.
But there are non-financial variants too, such as demands for more nude images that can escalate to demands for more explicit content, or for direct sexual engagement. This form of abuse tends to target young women and girls.
Regardless of what form it takes, the impacts of sexual extortion can be rapid and profound, quickly building to deep distress and the feeling of being cornered with no way out.
Perpetrators are often hardened criminals or sexual predators who will use a combination of guilt and shame to force the young person to pay large sums or risk their intimate imagery being shared with family members and friends.
You can only imagine the sense of panic and helplessness that ensues for that young person.
Sextortion need not become a life-defining event, but young people are manipulated to feel there is no escape unless they capitulate with immediate demands that are often unrealistic or even impossible to fulfill.
So, in the moment for that isolated young person, they can feel like it is the end of their world as they know it.
Devastatingly, some young victims have taken their own lives rather than seek help.
This is precisely why we need a whole of community response to ensure that we not only make young people and parents aware of how commonplace these sexual extortion scams have become, but even more importantly, we need young people to know there is help and support available and, ultimately, “this too shall pass.”
Indeed, telling someone is the first step, whether it’s a friend, family member, teacher or support service like Kids Helpline or Lifeline.
We know, however that there are many barriers to this, including the stigma and shame associated with victimisation. As a result, despite the dramatic increase in reports, we’re also aware sexual extortion remains under-reported.
A complicating factor is the sheer scale of the problem.
This has become a global phenomena with the US, Canada and the UK, among others, also experiencing shockingly high rates of sexual extortion.
The Youth, Technology and Virtual Communities conference being held for the 10th year by the Queensland Police Service this week will spotlight both the trends, the prevention measures and the potential remedies.
One of the trends eSafety will be illuminating is the ways that criminal syndicates are using sophisticated tactics, such as “bombing” high schools, sporting teams and youth groups with follow requests to appear to have many mutual friends with the victim. If we can all spot the patterns, we can work to prevent them.
Criminal actors are often “early adopters” of advanced technologies to engage in social engineering scams. Overseas criminals could be digitally manipulating images using ‘nudify’ apps, to initiate these attacks and using “face swapping” technologies to conceal their identities on video conferencing services. One of my biggest concerns is that manipulative chatbots will start being deployed to target young people with even greater precision and on a more massive scale.
For all of these reasons – and many more – eSafety is prioritising sexual extortion as a key focus area, to improve our collective understanding and responses to this issue.
Part of the response needs to lie with the mainstream social media platforms where young people are being targeted and where the vectors of abuse are likely to occur. The mass creation of fake and imposter accounts, the common scripts used by predators to ensnare their victims and the common victimology “kill chain” are all patterns that platforms can and should be capturing and preventing.
eSafety investigators have captured some of these patterns to share with platforms so that they can take action.
Increased industry focus on sexual extortion is occurring and some incremental changes such as nudity protection features and child-safety in-app reporting functions, have been made to improving reporting and support for victims of this crime. But we need to see much more decisive action for companies to really harden the threat surface and meaningfully deploy safety by design to prevent this harm type from happening in the first place.
We will keep using our systemic regulatory tools – including our transparency powers and mandatory codes – to compel this change where it does not happen voluntarily. And, we will continue to provide support to Australians who report to us through the image-based abuse scheme to remove intimate images shared without consent.
But, for the present time, concerted efforts to enhance prevention education remains the most important intervention. So, speak to the young adults in your life and remind them you are there to help them if anything goes wrong online, no matter how embarrassed or ashamed they might feel. Telling someone they trust to help them problem-solve is the most important thing they can do. Once they disclose an instance of sexual extortion, the young person should:
- Save the evidence via screenshot
- Report the account to the platform
- Report to the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) if the sexual extortion target is under 18
- Report to eSafety if their intimate imagery has been shared online
- Block the perpetrator
- DO NOT PAY.
Once a perpetrator has been paid, they will continue to come back for more. If the target refuses to pay, blocks the perpetrator and ignores consistent approaches; the contact will eventually cease.
You can find more detailed information about how to prevent and address sexual extortion if it happens, on our page titled Dealing with sexual extortion.
But most of all, know you are not alone. eSafety is working with working with a whole range of partners across government and the community, all of whom are equally committed to supporting our young people through the crisis we face. Together we can defeat it and provide a pathway out and forward for young people.
*eSafety expected a growing number of reports of sexual extortion over time as people became aware of the Image-Based Abuse Scheme.
