Advocates, B.C. police warn online 'sextortion' of youth is on the rise – Coast Mountain News

Mounties in Metro Vancouver have issued a warning about a recent increase in “sextortion,” saying police have received a “large number” of reports of money-motivated extortion targeting young girls and boys. The statement issued by Coquitlam RCMP follows similar warnings from police departments in other provinces in recent months, including in Alberta and Ontario. Stephen Sauer, the director of Cybertip.ca, a tip line operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, says the online sextortion of children is on the rise as criminals take advantage of pandemic-driven increases in the amount of time kids are spending online. He says there’s also a “double-silencing effect” among victims, who often don’t tell anyone about the extortion because they’ve been convinced to share sexual images and are afraid of getting into trouble. The victims are pulled “deeper and deeper” into the extortion, he says, as the criminals continue harassing them, threatening to publicly share the personal images as they try to extract as much money as they can. Sauer says his organization typically receives 200 or more sextortion tips each month, a number that’s been on the rise, particularly with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic as children spent more time online for
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