Hello Reader,

We often think of child sexual abuse as something physical. But sexual abuse can happen digitally, too. And right now, one of the fastest-growing forms of child sexual abuse is happening online—through sextortion.

Nearly every single day, we hear from devastated parents whose children are being sextorted. The consequences are heartbreaking. And in far too many cases—fatal.

What is sextortion?

Sextortion is digital blackmail. A scammer (often posing as a peer or romantic interest) coerces a child into sending a nude image, then threatens to leak it unless money is paid.

And now, with AI-generated nudes, any child with a public photo online is at risk—even if they’ve never sent a nude image.

It’s the fastest-growing and deadliest form of child sexual abuse today.

We’ve been warning parents about sextortion since 2017, when the U.S. Department of Justice first raised the alarm. And now it’s reached crisis levels.

Few people understand this crisis better than our friend, Paul Raffile, a threat intelligence analyst who has helped thousands of sextortion victims. He calls it “the most dangerous scam in human history.” One out of every 1,000 reported victims dies by suicide.

Just last month Paul reported:

• Over 25,000 scammers were trained in a single week how to sexually exploit and blackmail teens.
• Grooming and blackmail tutorials went viral among criminals, gaining over 1 million views.
• Paul’s decoy accounts were targeted by 26 different scammer profiles in one week—his highest ever.

This is organized crime, and our kids are the target. Your child doesn’t even have to send a nude to be at risk. AI-generated nudes, fake profiles, and blackmail scripts are being used at scale.

Get the facts: Sextortion by the numbers

📊A skyrocketing crisis

• In 2021, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received just 139 sextortion reports involving minors.
• By 2023, that number exploded to 26,000—an 18,000% increase in two years.

📈From 1 in 17 to 1 in 4!

• In 2023, Thorn reported that 1 in 17 teens had experienced sextortion.
• In 2024, Snapchat’s global study of 6,004 youth (ages 13–24) across all platforms found that nearly 1 in 4 (23%) had been victims.
• Snapchat's study found that two-thirds of teens have been targeted in sextortion schemes.
• 51% said they’d either been lured into online situations or engaged in risky behaviors that could lead to sextortion.

💔A deadly scam

• At least 46 American teens have died by suicide due to sextortion.
• Sextortion has a 1 in 1,000 fatality rate.

To put that into perspective, the teen car crash fatality rate is 11 per 100,000 (CDC). Sextortion is over 9 times more deadly than car crashes. And unlike driving, it’s a risk most parents aren’t even aware their child faces.

Steps to take if your child is a victim of sextortion

Here are 8 crucial steps Paul Raffile recommends if your child has been sextorted:

1. Report and block the criminal on all platforms. Then change usernames, profile pics, and display names, or deactivate accounts temporarily (don’t delete them) so the criminal can’t find your child again.
2. Do NOT respond to demands or messages.
3. If the criminal is using iMessage, either turn on Filtered Messages or change the phone number.
4. If any payment was made, contact the app and bank to reverse it due to fraud.
5. Report the sextortion to NCMEC.org and the FBI cybercrime portal at IC3.gov.
6. If the criminal posts images, use TakeItDown.NCMEC.org to get them removed from online platforms.
7. Avoid paying shady companies that claim to remove images for a fee.
8. Thank your child for telling you. Let them know how brave they are—and that the scammers rarely leak images. They just move on.

Sextortion is abuse

As we observe Child Abuse Prevention Month, we must include digital sexual abuse in the conversation. Sextortion is child sexual abuse—and it’s every bit as real and damaging as physical abuse.

Here’s how you can protect your child

Sextortion is terrifying—but prevention is possible. Here are our best tips.

✅ Talk about it. Kids need to know what sextortion is and how to respond.
✅ Delay social media. The Surgeon General recommends waiting until age 16.
​✅ Limit device privacy. Keep screens out of bedrooms and bathrooms.
✅ Use tools like Canopy (use promo code DYMB2S 20% off) or Bark to monitor and filter online activity.
✅ Teach them to build an internal filter so they recognize red flags and make safe choices.
✅ Download our free Digital Safety Planner for step-by-step help.
✅ Start young. Our Good Pictures Bad Pictures books teach kids to reject pornography. When a child knows to reject pornography, they are safer from exploitation of all kinds.

Learn more about sextortion in these must-read articles:

• ​Sextortion Scams and Teen Suicide: One Father's Urgent Warning​
• ​Deep Trouble With Deepfake Porn: 9 Tips to Protect Your Kids​

You don’t need to wait for schools, law enforcement, or tech companies to catch up.

Take action today—use our trusted resources to keep your child safer from the darkest corners of the internet.

Kindly,

Kristen

P.S. Use our Body Safety Toolkit to protect your child from all forms of sexual abuse. This step-by-step digital guide helps your child create a body safety plan and learn to recognize and report 3 “red flag” situations to stay safe.