State police are offering advice to parents and caregivers to make sure children do not become victims of sextortion.
The guidance comes as they continue to respond to such incidents. In one case, the victim was a child less than 10 years of age. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, sextortion is described as “incidents of teens or children being coerced into sending sexually explicit images online and extorted for either money or additional explicit material.
State police say that parents should become familiar with, use and periodically re-check the parental controls and location-sharing settings on all smartphones, devices and apps that children use. They also advise parents take such devices from their children’s bedrooms at night, as that is a time when children are likely to fall victim to internet predators. Parents should also consider carefully whether to allow their child to have a device unsupervised, and to talk regularly with their children about personal safety, the real risks of communicating with strangers on social media, and to notify parents right away if they receive a message asking for explicit photos or videos or shared such material already.
State police hope with the notification to prevent sextortion cases and deter child predators from seeking to victimize more children.
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