Police warn of online ‘sextortion’ trend in Saskatchewan

An online trend that sees teenagers coerced into sharing sexual images and then extorted for cash has police in Saskatchewan concerned.

Police with the Saskatchewan Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) Unit are warning parents to be on the lookout for “sextortion,” which police said is becoming an all-too-common online trend.

“Sextortion,” police said, occurs when offenders contact victims — most commonly teenage boys — through chat-based social media platforms, often disguising their identities by pretending to be young girls.

They establish a rapport, which police said often involves flattery or establishing a fake relationship, before sending the victims intimate images.

“They will then coerce their victims into sending sexualized personal images back,” police said in a release. “Once received, the offender threatens to send the images to the young person’s family and friends. They will then extort the youth for money to stop this from occurring.”

The trend has been seen across Canada recently, police said, including cases in Saskatoon.

“Sask ICE has received over a dozen reports of this type of occurrence in the last month,” police said. “Suspects in these cases are often overseas, and are difficult to identify and prosecute.”

According to Cybertip.ca — a website where Canadians can report online sexual exploitation of children — there are an average of 168 “sextortion” reports made every month, and there was a 150 per cent increase in the incidents between December of 2021 and May of this year. In July and August alone, more than 600 reports of “sextortion” were submitted from across Canada.

Police with the ICE Unit encouraged parents to have “age-appropriate conversations with their child around personal safety online and what to do if they find themselves in a situation that makes them feel uncomfortable.”

More information on “sextortion” and how it can be prevented can be found on Cybertip’s web page.