NCA alerts - warning about "sextortion" and CYP

Good afternoon

You may be aware that the National Crime Agency’s CEOP Education, the team that aims to help protect children and young people from online child sexual abuse, yesterday (29 April) issued an alert to educational settings across the UK in response to the increase in reports of children and young people becoming victims of financially motivated sexual extortion, often referred to as sextortion or sexually coerced extortion. All ages and genders are being targeted, but a large number of cases concern male victims in the 14-18 age range.

The alerts give advice on recognising this kind of abuse, how to support young people affected, and raise awareness of how adult offenders (often part of organised crime groups) threaten to release nude or semi-nudes of the CYP for financial gain. Template letters have also been issued for schools to reach out to parents and carers about this growing type of online abuse. 

Available for downloading at FMSE Alert (thinkuknow.co.uk) are alerts for both England and Scotland.

The alert for Wales can be found here:  Financially motivated sexual extortion - Hwb (gov.wales)

The alert for Northern Ireland is available here: Financially motivated sexual extortion: alert for education settings - Safeguarding Board for Northern Ireland (safeguardingni.org)

To read the full press release from the NCA, please see  NCA issues urgent warning about ‘sextortion’ - National Crime Agency

The Survivors Trust welcomes the issuing of these alerts in response to the worrying uptick in cases of sextortion globally.  As online financial blackmail, it may have some different hallmarks, but whatever way you wrap it up, this is child sexual abuse and its growth continues to concern specialist organisations working in this field.  Last week, the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) declared that 2023 was a record year for online child sexual abuse reports, with the IWF finding more child sexual abuse material online last year than any year previously.

We know that many of our member agencies are working with children and young people around online harms and would encourage members to share details of these alerts with any schools, colleges and other educational settings they are in contact with, in case the alerts have not been received or given due attention.

Best Wishes

Lisa