Content Warning: This interview discusses topics such as sexual violence and abuse.
Dr. Karen Holt is an assistant professor in the School of Criminal Justice, and a Center Associate with the MSU Center for Cybercrime Investigation & Training. In this op-ed, she discusses sextortion and revenge porn offenses, who generally commits these crimes, and what victims of these crimes can do to if they are receiving these types of threats.
What is sextortion?
Sextortion, a combination of “sexual” and “extortion” refers to threats to share nude or sexually explicit images unless a victim complies with a perpetrator’s demands. It is the threat to disseminate that is the defining feature of sextortion. These threats are weaponized to create a sense of fear, shame, and uncertainty that perpetrators exploit to gain compliance from victims. Demands vary in nature, but most often are sexual, financial, or behavioral. Sexual demands often include asking for more sexually explicit content such as images, videos, chats, and in some cases physical acts. Financial demands include requests for money and gift cards as payment. Behavioral demands are most often associated with sextortion between individuals who had some sort of existing and intimate relationship where the images or video may have initially been sent consensually by the victim. These demands can include continuing the relationship, engaging in sexual acts, or generally controlling aspects of the victim’s life. Sextortion is a crime that thrives on silence and privacy, meaning sextortion occurs between the perpetrator and the victim. The risk that looms is the perpetrators’ threat to make the images public. Often, if victims comply with demands, perpetrator threats will continue and escalate in nature, intensity, and frequency.
Sextortion can happen through different approaches – online or offline grooming, fake profiles that scam and “catfish,” phishing emails, hacking or claims of hacking devices, the creating of fake images, or through someone trying to control the victim. It can occur between strangers, peers, and those in intimate relationships. It overlaps with crimes such as the sexual exploitation of minors, intimate partner abuse, sexual abuse, cyberbullying, cyberstalking, and organized or transnational criminal organizations. Images may be sent consensually, or victims may be hacked and have images stolen. The use of AI is increasing in sextortion, and non-sexual images and videos may be edited to undress victims or depict them in sexual acts.
Who commits sextortion?
There is a misconception that most sextortion happens by adult strangers online who target minor children. Research does not support this. Like offline contact sexual abuse, individuals who commit sextortion are most often people that the victim knows in the “real” world, such as intimate partners, peers, friends, or acquaintances. Additionally, most perpetrators are in the same age group as the victim, and sextortion can be perpetrated by both minors and adults. Sextortion often occurs within the context of relationships. Images and content that may have been shared with consent are then weaponized to expose and exploit victims.
In some cases, perpetrators may be part of transnational cybercrime organizations. This involves the use of scams to “trap” victims. This can occur through spammers who send bulk emails that claim to have comprising images and who demand payment like Bitcoin. It can also involve the use of fake social media accounts where perpetrators chat with victims while posing as peers of the same age. The talk will quickly turn sexual, and perpetrators will often ask the victim to masturbate or send images. They will immediately leverage these against the victim to demand financial payment. Regardless of who the perpetrator is, sextortion creates a sense of fear of exposure for the victim that is exploited for the perpetrator’s gain.
Who are the victims of sextortion?
Despite the widespread concern over minors being victims of sextortion, anyone can be a victim of this crime. The research is generally mixed when it comes to gender of victims. Both girls/women and boys/men report being victimized. Individuals who are LGBTQ+ are more likely than heterosexual cisgender persons to be targeted. There are gendered differences in sextortion crime characteristics. For boys and men, they are more often the victims of financial sextortion by transnational cybercrime perpetrators. For girls and women, perpetrators are most often known and are current or past intimate partners. The age of victims varies, although most studies indicate that youth and emerging and younger adults are more likely to report this crime. So while sextortion can happen across relationship types, age, and gender, we do know that some people are more vulnerable than others.
What should someone do if they are receiving sextortion threats?
Sextortion can result in significant harm and trauma for victims. The goal of sextortion perpetrators is to create a sense of imminent threat and terror. The most important thing to remember is not to comply with demands. While in a state of panic, fear, shame, or desperation, many think that compliance will resolve the matter. Perpetrators will typically ask for more if demands are met, and in many cases, images can be disseminated regardless of victim compliance. The important thing to remember is not to react, to disengage, stay calm, and know that, despite what the perpetrator says, you have control and there will be an “after” to what feels like an unbearable and terrifying experience. Most perpetrators will eventually move on to other victims and/or cease the threats if you do not comply. There is no reasoning with perpetrators, whether they are known to you or complete strangers on the other side of the world.
If you or someone you know is the victim of sextortion, the best thing to do is to cease all contact immediately and report the crime to law enforcement. Collect and save all digital evidence. Block the perpetrator from all apps and if they are known to you, ask family and friends to do the same. In some cases, victims should change passwords and tighten online security measures.
Some victims do not feel comfortable reporting to police, and if that is the case, find a trusted person that you can talk to. There are also many online resources for those who are victims of this crime that provide excellent advice and services that can assist victims in taking down any images that are posted online or that can prevent images from being posted in the first place. Remember that the goal of the perpetrator is to make you feel powerless and alone. With the resources available to stop sextortion, the support services available to victims, and our growing knowledge of how these crimes occur, victims should remember that they have power and control. There is an “after,” and victims do not have to face this alone.