February 7th is #SaferInternetDay. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and our partner the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program (ICAC) have teamed up to raise awareness about these crimes to protect children.
The theme of this year's Safer Internet Day is sextortion, with a focus on financial sextortion and making sure young people know they can always get help. Sextortion occurs when children and teens are being coerced into sending explicit images online and extorted for more explicit content or money.
The FBI, in partnership with Homeland Security Investigations and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), have issued a national public safety alert regarding a surge in sextortion schemes involving children.
In 2022, more than 3,000 minor victims, primarily boys, were targeted with sextortion crimes. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of reports involving sextortion more than doubled, according to NCMEC.
OJJDP aims to #StartTheConversation about financial sextortion, the online exploitation crime which can be directed toward youth in which coercion or blackmail is used to demand payment from the victim.
Start the Conversation
#SID2023/ICAC
#SaferInternetDay
#StartTheConversation
#InternetSafety
- The Issues: Sextortion
- NetSmartz Educational Resources on Sextortion
- Poster: It's Called Sextortion > English | Spanish
- Sextortion Fact Sheet
Protect Our Youth Online: A Virtual Event to Start the Conversation Webinars
As part of Internet Safety Month in June 2022, OJJDP and ICAC presented "Protect Our Youth Online: A Virtual Event to Start the Conversation." This virtual event—comprising three webinars—featured presentations from technology safety experts with tips and resources to help inform and protect youth online.