Investigators working to fight online child exploitation offer a few tips to people who want to keep themselves — or their children — from becoming targets of sextortion.
• Don’t become friends, online, with someone you don’t have any way of meeting in real life.
• Don’t create explicit photos or video of yourself or any friends. And, if you do, don’t store it or share it online with anyone.
• If you’re a parent, don’t expect your kid to never use the internet or never chat online with people they’ve never met in real life. Instead, make it a conversation starter, and insist on meeting any online friends and exercise veto power if that persona feels sketchy.
• If any friend asks you for explicit material, that person might not be who they say they are. And they probably aren’t going to keep it to themselves if they get it.
Experts also point to resources to report sextortion, or deal with its aftermath:
• The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offers information about services and support for victims and family members: missingkids.org
• The center, sometimes known as NCMEC, also offers a tip line to report possible child exploitation or missing children: 800 843‐5678
• Suicide Crisis Lifeline is available if you are thinking about suicide or need emotional support: 988lifeline.org
• A free service – Take It Down– can help you remove or stop the online sharing ofnude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos: takeitdown.ncmec.org
• Homeland Security Investigations has a tip line to report possible online crime, including sextortion: 866-347‐2423
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