JPD captain talks about protecting minors from social media threats
JACKSON, Tenn. — In a world where many people find themselves involved online, whether through social media or gaming platforms, it can be easy to forget that there are real dangers.
According to earthweb.com, teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 spend the most time on social media, averaging out at three hours.
However, there are also reports that some teens are spending as much as nine hours on social media.
Minors are facing online dangers that could lead to solicitation and enticement to engage in sexual acts, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Capt. Danielle Jones, with the Jackson Police Department, described sextortion as a situation where a child or an adult has shared photos that are now being used in a “blackmail-type situation.”
She said the blackmailer could threaten to leak the already sent photos to others if more are not sent.
Another threat comes in the form of financially-motivated Sextortion, which is a criminal act that involves an offender coercing a minor to create and send sexually explicit material.
Offenders threaten to release that compromising material unless they receive payment, according to the FBI.
Jones suggested that victims reach out for help from the police department.
“We have an ICAC unit. And retain as much information as you can on the phones. Don’t delete anything so that way at some point we can try to analyze that so we can move towards a possible prosecution on that,” Jones said.
The FBI also shared that from October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI and Homeland Security investigations received over 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors.
The sextortion involved at least 12,600 victims – primarily boys – and led to at least 20 suicides.
In Jackson, the cases reported show a different majority demographic.
“The majority of the victims that we see with cases like this are female victims. But that’s not to discount that males or young men can be victims of the same thing as well,” Jones said. “We encourage young men who are victims of crime to come forward. So we don’t want them to feel ashamed to come forward about something like this.”
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