Police in New Westminster (NWPD) have issued a public after recently receiving several reports of sextortion.
"Often, sextortion cases remain unreported due to the sensitive nature of the images and the victim may often be too embarrassed to file a report," NWPD Sgt. Justine Thom said.
"Youth may also be hesitant to seek adult assistance and will often comply with threats to try and manage the situation on their own."
A news release today (Dec. 29) explains "sexting" is when an individual sends a sexually explicit photo, video or message to another person by phone or computer.
Sextortion is when someone threatens to send your sexually explicit photo, video or message to other people if you don't provide them with more sexual content or financial compensation.
The NWPD is encouraging parents and guardians to have conversations with their children about risks associated with using technology to experiment sexually and the potential risk of extortion.
"Parents should also talk with their children about deleting and blocking unsolicited messages or communications from unknown persons online, as well as being careful who they add to social media."
New West police say if you are in a situation where you are being extorted, to do the following:
- Immediately stop all communication. Deactivate (but do not delete) any of the accounts you are using to communicate with the individual
- For youth – Ask a parent or guardian for assistance
- Do not comply with the threat. In other words, never pay money and never send additional photos. The situation will not get better by doing either of these things. If money has been paid, check to see if it has been collected and, if not, quickly cancel the payment
- Keep the correspondence. Keep information such as the person’s username(s), social media account information, a copy of the communications, along with any images and/or videos that were sent
