Sextortion: What Parents Need to Know

Sextortion is a growing fraud that is driving the worst possible outcome: suicide by children and young adults. Sadly, the Heacock family in Kentucky experienced this firsthand when their 16-year-old son, Elijah, took his own life.1 His parents didn't even know anything was wrong, but Elijah's phone revealed that someone had used AI to create nude photos of him and demanded $3,000 to keep them secret. 

"I don’t want another mother to ever face this, another sibling, another father to face this," his mother, Shannon Heacock, told a local news station.

The FBI tied an estimated 20 suicides of young people to sextortion between October 2021 and January 2024.2 The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) received 23,593 reports of financial sextortion in the first six months of 2025 alone.3 In 2024, the FBI received nearly 55,000 reports of extortion, including sextortion.4

Here's what all parents and loved ones of young adults should know about the heinous crime of sextortion. 

What Is Sextortion?

According to an academic review of the crime, sextortion happens when a perpetrator threatens to "share nude or sexual images to coerce the victim into complying with certain demands, such as paying a ransom, sharing intimate images, or engaging in unwanted acts."5

Though the FBI notes that boys between the ages of 14 and 17 are the most common victims and the perpetrators are often overseas cybercriminals, the academic review found that sextortion occurs in other contexts as well, including as a part of intimate partner abuse, online dating, cyberbullying a victim based on their sexuality or status as a sex worker, as a part of sex trafficking and organized crime.2 5

How Does Sextortion Work?

Though the many forms of sextortion listed above may unfold in a variety of ways, the typical sextortion scam that targets minors online typically happens this way: 

Initial contact: A perpetrator approaches a victim online, often on social media, chat apps, gaming platforms, or dating apps.6 The perpetrator may pose as someone their own age.

Trust building: The scammer works to gain the child's trust. They may engage with them on topics they're interested in and send the victim photos or videos of themselves.

Platform move: Particularly if the perpetrator made initial contact in a gaming platform or other moderated online spaces, they will often ask the child to move to a private messaging app.7

Graphic imagery request: The perpetrator uses their relationship with the victim to request sexual photos or videos of themselves.

Financial demand: Once the scammer has the intimate images or video, they threaten to release it to friends, family, the child's school, or other social circles unless the victim meets a demand. The demand may be financial, often in the form of gift cards, wire transfers, mobile payments, or cryptocurrency, or they may ask for more graphic images.2

Escalation: If a victim complies with the demand, the scammer often increases the ask, making the victim feel there is no way to make it stop.8

Deepfake twist: If a victim refuses to comply, AI now gives perpetrators another option: creating AI-generated images or videos. As in the Heacock family tragedy above, the extortion can still be effective when the images aren't real. 

Sextortion is effective because it exploits victims' vulnerabilities, like shame, fear of exposure, and concern about reputation. These vulnerabilities are particularly powerful during the teen years, and teens spend a great deal of time on their devices, making them appealing victims for perpetrators. 

How To Protect Your Family From Sextortion

Sextortion tactics are alarming. But there are concrete steps that parents and families can take to protect their loved ones.7

• Educate your loved ones (especially teens) about the risks of sharing intimate content or chatting with strangers online.
  
  
• Actively participate in kids' digital lives. Have clear expectations about online safety and boundaries. Check in regularly to know what online activities they're engaged in.
  
  
• Talk about relationships and sexuality with kids. Let them know what is and isn't healthy.
  
  
• Set up privacy settings on social media, devices, gaming platforms and messaging apps. When possible, limit what unknown contacts can send or request.8
  
  
• Consider limits on a child's physical privacy while online, including allowing phones in their bedroom overnight or other boundaries.
  
  
• Tell kids to never send intimate images or videos to people they have not met personally or whose identity they can't verify.
  
  
• Teach children and teens that if someone threatens them online, the person making the threat is at fault, not them. Make sure kids will feel safe to come to you when they've made a mistake.

If your child tells you they've been targeted:

• Assure them they have done nothing wrong.
  
  
• Do not pay or comply with any additional demands. Often, that only escalates the situation.
  
  
• Preserve all evidence, like screenshots, chat logs, or payment records.
  
  
• Immediately report the incident to local law enforcement, the platform (the social media company, messaging app, etc.), the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center,

and, if minors are involved, to NCMEC’s CyberTipline.9 10

• Seek mental-health support for every victim. A 2024 report found that one in seven young people who experienced sextortion harmed themselves in response.11

While the threat of sextortion is evolving and serious, parents and others who care about young people's safety can use knowledge, open communication, and vigilance to help keep them safe. If you, your child, or anyone you know is contemplating suicide, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline for help 24 hours a day.