AFP and Meta tackle rising ‘sextortion’ of high school students

Police have launched a new initiative to tackle the rising sextortion of Aussie high school students – and the threats come from one country in particular.

Detective Senior Constable Meagan Kilpatrick investigates increasing rates of sextortion. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail.

The Australian Federal Police has announced a new crackdown against the sextortion of high school students as the cyber crisis spirals.

The new initiative aims to combat the issue among 13-17 year-olds by forging a partnership between the AFP, Kids Helpline, Meta (Facebook), and US youth prevention program NoFiltr to help children and families cope with sextortion situations.

Recent figures released by the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) reveal police are receiving more than 300 reports of sextortion a month, with numbers expected to increase during the end-of-school-year period.

The eSafety Commissioner further reported a 117 per cent increase in cases of image-based abuse, with sextortion making up 68 per cent of more than 9000 incidents reported in the last financial year.

According to the AFP, sextortion is a “form of online blackmail where offenders trick or coerce someone into sending sexual images of themselves and then threaten to share the images unless their demands are met”.

Detective Senior Constable Meagan Kilpatrick, from the Queensland cyber crime unit, investigates increasing rates of sextortion. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/Courier Mail

“These demands could be for money, more graphic content or sexual favours,” the AFP explained.

Educational resources about what do to if you or your children are targeted online by sextorters will lead the crackdown, alongside social media tools made available on platforms like Facebook and Instagram where young people face the greatest risk.

AFP Acting Commander ACCCE Frank Rayner told the Guardian that most offenders were not known to children and operated outside of Australia.

A heat map of sextortion attempts blocked by Avast shows Australia is considered a high-risk country. Picture: Supplied via NCA NewsWire

‘We’ll generally have enough information to attribute where these offenders are operating from and we’re basically referring to online syndicates of offenders from Africa,” he said. “Nigeria is the main source of this type of offending that we have noticed.”

Mr Rayer also assured children that the AFP “are here to protect and support victims of sextortion”.

“It can escalate in a matter of minutes, but remember it is not your fault and when you speak up we will believe you and support you,” he said.

High school students are targeted on social medi platforms and can become victims within a matter of minutes. Picture: iStock

“There are some telltale signs of sextortion (to look for), including incoming friend requests from strangers or people pretending to be friends with your friends, sudden sexualised questions, conversations or photos from a random profile asking for some in return.”

Meta regional policy director Mia Garlick said the partnership to tackle child sexual abuse across popular social media platforms would help to mitigate “what can be an extremely traumatic experience for young people”.

“It does not matter what personal circumstances you are in,” she said. “This can happen to anyone and most importantly – help is available.”

Despite the increase in cases, the AFP suspects offending is far higher than the numbers reported, as many victims are yet to come forward.