Sexual extortion of Australian adolescents
More than 1 in 10 adolescents have experienced sexual extortion, according to a joint eSafety and Australian Institute of Criminology research project.
Sexual extortion is a form of blackmail where someone threatens to release an intimate image or video of a person unless they comply with certain demands. This national research surveyed 1,953 adolescents aged 16 to 18 years living in in Australia to find out how many had experienced sexual extortion and how it had happened.
Summary of key findings
The research found that more than 1 in 10 adolescents had experienced sexual extortion. Of those:
- 1 in 3 (32.3%) had experienced more than one instance of sexual extortion
- more than half (57.7%) had experienced sexual extortion before the age of 16
- 2 in 5 (41.4%) were extorted using digitally manipulated material
- 2 in 3 (64.6%) were extorted by someone they had met online and had never met in person.
There were some significant gender differences:
- The average age of first sexual extortion experience was younger for girls than for boys.
- Boys were more likely than girls to have experienced sexual extortion in the 12 months prior to the survey (41.5% vs 19.1%).
- Boys were more likely than girls to have been sexually extorted by someone who they had never met in person (74.4% vs 58.8%).
- Boys were significantly more likely to receive financial demands from blackmailers (79.3% vs 33.6%), whereas girls were more likely to receive demands for additional intimate material (59.5% vs 18.3%).
About this research
As part of a study, led by the Australian Institute of Criminology, 1,953 people aged 16 to 18 years were surveyed to measure the extent and nature of sexual extortion in adolescence.
It is important to note that sexual extortion of someone under 18-years-old is a form of child sexual abuse.
The experiences of adolescent Australians revealed in this research support the need for various collaborative prevention and intervention activities. These should bring together law enforcement agencies, governments, financial institutions and the tech sector (in particular), to reduce opportunities for sexual extortion while increasing detection and support for victims.
In collaboration with eSafety, a freely-accessible paper has been published in Trends and issues in crime and criminal justice. The paper sets out the study and its findings in detail.
Helpful resources
eSafety’s guide on sextortion: How to recognise it, take action, and protect yourself.
Someone is threatening to share my nudes: Advice for young people.
Managing the impacts of image-based abuse: Strategies for coping and minimising harm.
How to help someone deal with image-based abuse: Guidance on supporting victims.
Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE): Guidance from Australia’s national body that combats child sexual grooming and abuse.
Sexual extortion trends and challenges – position statement | eSafety Commissioner: In-depth analysis from eSafety.