What to do if you fall victim to ‘sextortion’: Tips from a social media lawyer

John Maytham speaks with Emma Sadleir, social media lawyer.

Listen to the interview in the audio below.

'Sextortion' occurs when a person persuades or manipulates a someone to upload explicit pictures of themselves and uses those pictures to blackmail them.

International crime syndicates are usually said to be behind 'sextortion'.

Predators use platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok and Discord to seek out vulnerable targets, particularly teenagers.

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The primary targets are boys between the ages on 12 and 20.

Sadleir says most of these scammers will be prepared to speak to the victim for weeks or months before making their move.

“They do not ask for nudes straight away. They are very sophisticated.”

- Emma Sadleir, social media lawyer

“If you pay them the tiniest amount, they will not leave you alone.”

- Emma Sadleir, social media lawyer

Private school children are more likely to be targeted as their families have money to pay the balckmailers.

In most cases, they demand around R10,000, often in international money transfers or cryptocurrency.

In other cases, they will demand other explicit content from the child or threaten to release their private images.

Sadleir says it is incredibly difficult to get this 'sextortion' to stop once it has started and it is important that teens are aware of it so they can avoid it.

“I think prevention is better than cure… awareness is the most important tool in the arsenal against this epidemic of sextortion.”

- Emma Sadleir, social media lawyer

She says on average she receives five calls a day from parents of teenagers who have fallen victim to this.

From what she has seen, these people will attempt 'sextortion' in three different ways.

The perpetrator will either catfish as an attractive stranger, pose as a person the victim knows through a duplicate account, or use deepfake technology to create explicit content and threaten the victim with it.

If you are caught in this situation, she gives the following advice on her website:

-          Never pay them any money. The demands will not stop if you do.

-          Block their number and any way to contact you.

-          Temporarily block your social media accounts.

-          Screenshot all threats as evidence.

-          If the perpetrator is known to you, lay a criminal charge of extortion.

-          If your images do end up online, report it to the relevant platform to have it removed.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.