‘No escape room’: Interactive experience shows parents reality of sextortion

Mye Owens
·4 min read

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) – Reports of online sextortion are up by more than 300%, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The crime is one of the greatest risks kids and teens face online, but parents don’t always realize it’s happening until it’s too late.

It starts with a simple request, but the long game can be criminal.

“That happened to my child; that happened to my friend. It’s becoming much more common,” said Truman Carelli, a Private Investigator with Covert Results. “It’s as easy as someone going online and checking your DMs and somebody promising you something, or telling you you’re pretty and these kids are vulnerable and they believe it; they aren’t taught to make sure it’s a real person or make sure what school they go to, or ask somebody about it.”

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Carelli explained she will often visit schools and sit with parents, talking about the dangers of sextortion and hear similar stories.

In the age of technology where everything is at your fingertips, criminals are quick to use that same technology against someone.

“It can be somebody in California that’s preying on somebody here. I think we had a case where someone in Pennsylvania and they were being preyed upon by someone in Illinois. I mean, there is no boundaries with social media,” explained Carelli. “The white van, the kidnapping, the stranger danger, it’s all in person, it’s all local. This has no boundaries.”

Sextortion is when someone threatens to distribute sensitive material, like explicit images, unless you give them money or more pictures.

“I’ll give them $100 and they’ll leave me alone and I’ll be clear. They’re not going to do that. They’re going to persist; they’re going to keep coming back and in our experience, what we’ve seen on the investigation side, they do not stop,” Carelli said.

Last year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received over 26,000 reports of financial sextortion. That’s more than 10,000 reports compared to 2022’s total.

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“Get the attention of parents to get the attention of adults so they recognize this new wave of crime that’s facing our kids and they can get involved and try to keep it from happening,” explained Michelle Delaune, the president & CEO of the NCMEC, as she described the organization’s new campaign.

This month, the NCMEC launched the “No Escape Room” to give parents the chance to see what a child experiences when they’re extorted online.

The video portrays a teen at home, playing video games. As the video continues, he receives a message from an unknown person, claiming to be another teenager his age. The experience follows him through an entire day, and when the sextortion is obvious, the video allows parents to make choices along with the teen and see where it leads him.

“He’s at the dinner table texting, at the same time he’s talking to somebody online, and I think there is a tendency to assume something is happening with someone in another room; this is happening throughout the day, the phone in the kid’s hands, they are in communication with individuals all around the world, all day long,” explained Delaune. “This campaign is a true life example of how kids can be exploited online, and that honestly should get everybody’s attention.”

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The NCMEC has steps to take if you or a friend has experienced sextortion:

  • Remember, the blackmailer is to blame, not you. Even if you made a choice you regret, what they are doing is a crime.

  • Get help before deciding whether to pay money or otherwise comply with the blackmailer. Cooperating or paying rarely stops the blackmail.

  • REPORT the account via the platform’s safety feature.

  • BLOCK the suspect but DO NOT DELETE your profile or messages because that can be helpful in stopping the blackmailer.

What do you do if you have already become a victim?

  • Let NCMEC help get images of you down. Visit MissingKids.org/IsYourExplicitContentOutThere to learn how to notify companies yourself or visit cybertipline.org to report to us for help with the process.

  • Visit Take It Down so NCMEC can help you get your explicit images removed from the internet. Having nudes online is scary, but there is hope to get them taken down.

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