Devastated dad’s bid to end sextortion after son’s suicide

A devastated dad has vowed to raise awareness of the impact of sextortion after his 17-year-old son fell victim and took his own life.

Dad’s bid to end sextortion after son’s death. Picture: Brandon Guffey

A devastated dad is exposing the dangers of “sextortion” after losing his teenage son to suicide last year.

Brandon Guffey’s son Gavin, 17, received a message from someone posing as a girl on Instagram one evening in July 2022, and the pair began chatting on the social media app owned by Facebook’s parent company, Meta.

That person convinced Gavin to turn on “vanish mode” in their Instagram chat, which allows messages to disappear after they are received.

“And then they shared photos,” Mr Guffey, a South Carolina Republican state representative, told Fox News Digital.

Gavin Guffey, 17, took his own life in 2022 after becoming a victim of sextortion. Picture: Brandon Guffey

After exchanging photos, that person demanded money from Gavin. He replied that he only had $25 in his account, which Mr Guffey said was not true, and sent $25. The scammer demanded more.

“And he even said that … if these pictures go out, I’m going to end it right now,” the state politician explained. “I don’t know if any of the pictures were shared.”

Gavin, who had just graduated from high school that spring and had a passion for art and music, killed himself that evening.

After his death, the scammer he met on Instagram tracked down Brandon Guffey and Gavin’s teenage cousin on Instagram and began demanding money from them. No arrests have been made in the investigation.

The FBI defines sextortion as a “serious crime” in which perpetrators threaten to expose a victim’s sensitive or private information in exchange for sexually explicit material or money.

Brandon Guffey, right, has been exposing the dangers of sextortion after his son, Gavin, second from right, died by suicide last year. Picture: Brandon Guffey

On April 18, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed legislation Mr Guffey introduced last year called “Gavin’s Law,” which aims to combat sextortion in South Carolina by making it a felony offence, and an aggravated felony offence when the victim is a minor.

“With the signing of Gavin’s law, despicable criminals like the ones responsible for the Guffey family’s tragic loss will now know that they will go to jail for a very long time for preying on our state’s innocent young people,” Governor McMaster said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Mr Guffey said his goal with Gavin’s Law was to “send a message”.

Mr Guffey praised the collaboration between Democrats and Republicans in passing the bill, which aims to combat a crime that impacts more families than people realise, he said.

“I’ve had at least 30 families just in my little area that have reached out to me dealing with sextortion,” he said. “At least one to two a day across the country.”

The number of reports involving sextortion tips to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children more than doubled between 2019 and 2021. In 2022, 79 per cent of offenders were seeking money from victims.

Mr Guffey is now raising awareness of the dangers of sextortion. Picture: Brandon Guffey

If Gavin had come to his father prior to his suicide, Mr Guffey said he probably would not have gone public with his knowledge about the dangers of sextortion out of respect for his son’s privacy. Since his death, however, Mr Guffey wants to make real change in how these crimes are handled in the South Carolina criminal justice system.

“I personally will feel responsible for any child that I know that continues to get targeted like this, and I didn’t do everything I could to raise the awareness – to let parents know to go and have that conversation with their kids, and let their kids know that you’re not going to shame them.”

Sharing photos online and over the phone is part of kids’ “culture” today, Mr Guffey said.

His advice to other parents or children battling sextortion is, first, “get offline”.

Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat and other apps indicate when a user is online and active. Sextortion perpetrators will take advantage of that and send more demanding messages when the victim is online, he explained.

Second, “call the police and get them involved,” the state representative said.

“Some people say delete your social media and take screenshots of the images. I don’t believe that because the police can take over the conversation and hopefully track down these people,” who are based all over the country and the world, Mr Guffey said.

In Australia, the Federal Online Safety Act 2021 was introduced last year to force social media platforms to remove “cyber abuse material” within 24 hours or risk being fined.

The E-Safety Commission reported a 55 per cent rise in image based abuse in the last year, with males being the biggest victim of the crime at a staggering 60 per cent.

The majority of victims were between 18 and 24 – but a quarter were younger than 18, according to Criminal Defence Lawyers Australia.

More than half of image based abuse reports involve sextortion, which men are the majority victim of, while women are most impacted by revenge porn.

This article originally appeared on Fox News Digital and was reproduced with permission