Sextortion (a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordssex'' and ''

extortion Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...

'') employs non-physical forms of coercion to extort sexual favors from the victim. Sextortion refers to the broad category of

sexual exploitation Sexual slavery and sexual exploitation is an attachment of any ownership right over one or more people with the intent of coercing or otherwise forcing them to engage in sexual activities. This includes forced labor, reducing a person to a s ...

in which abuse of power is the means of coercion, as well as to the category of sexual exploitation in which threatened release of sexual images or information is the means of coercion. As used to describe an

abuse of power Abuse is the improper usage or treatment of a thing, often to unfairly or improperly gain benefit. Abuse can come in many forms, such as: physical or verbal maltreatment, injury, assault, violation, rape, unjust practices, crimes, or other t ...

, sextortion is a form of corruption in which people entrusted with power – such as government officials, judges, educators, law enforcement personnel, and employers – seek to extort sexual favors in exchange for something within their authority to grant or withhold. Examples of such abuses of power include: government officials who request sexual favors to obtain licenses or permits, teachers who trade good grades for sex with students, and employers who make providing sexual favors a condition of obtaining a job. Sextortion also refers to a form of blackmail in which sexual information or images are used to extort money or sexual favors from the victim. Social media and text messages are often the source of the sexual material and the threatened means of sharing it with others. An example of this type of sextortion is where people are extorted with a nude image of themselves they shared on the Internet through

sexting Sexting is sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or videos, primarily between mobile phones. It may also include the use of a computer or any digital device. The term was first popularized early in the 21st ...

. They are later coerced into giving money, or performing

sexual acts Human sexual activity, human sexual practice or human sexual behaviour is the manner in which humans experience and express their sexuality. People engage in a variety of sexual acts, ranging from activities done alone (e.g., masturbation) t ...

with the person doing the extorting or are coerced into posing or performing sexually on camera, thus producing hardcore pornography. This method of blackmail is also frequently used to out

LGBT ' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity. The LGBT term ...

people who keep their true

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. These attractions are generall ...

private. A video highlighting the dangers of sextortion has been released by the

National Crime Agency The National Crime Agency (NCA) is a national law enforcement agency in the United Kingdom. It is the UK's lead agency against organised crime; human, weapon and drug trafficking; cybercrime; and economic crime that goes across regional and in ...

in the UK to educate people, especially given the fact that blackmail of a sexual nature may cause

humiliation Humiliation is the abasement of pride, which creates mortification or leads to a state of being humbled or reduced to lowliness or submission. It is an emotion felt by a person whose social status, either by force or willingly, has just dec ...

to a sufficient extent to cause the victim to take their own life, in addition to other efforts to educate the public on the risks of sextortion.

Webcam blackmail

Sextortion through the use of

webcam A webcam is a video camera which is designed to record or stream to a computer or computer network. They are primarily used in videotelephony, livestreaming and social media, and security. Webcams can be built-in computer hardware or peripheral ...

s is also a concern, especially for those who use webcams for

flirting Flirting or coquetry is a social and sexual behavior involving spoken or written communication, as well as body language. It is either to suggest interest in a deeper relationship with the other person or, if done playfully, for amusement. I ...

and

cybersex Cybersex, also called computer sex, Internet sex, netsex and, colloquially, cyber or cybering, is a virtual sex encounter in which two or more people have long distance sex via electronic video communication (webcams, VR headsets, etc) and other e ...

. Often this involves a cybercriminal posing as someone else – such as an attractive person – initiating communication of a sexual nature with the victim (about 95% of victims are male). Often, the cybercriminal simply shows the victim a pre-recorded video of a performer from a cybersex webcam site which they are sufficiently familiar with, then messages the victim at points in the video where the performer appears to be typing on the keyboard, to give the illusion that the performer in the video is messaging them. The victim is then persuaded to undress in front of a webcam, and may also be persuaded to engage in sexual behaviour, such as masturbation. The video is recorded by the cybercriminal, who then reveals their true intent and demands money or other services (such as more explicit images of the victim, in cases of online predation), and threatening to publicly release the video to video services like

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

and send it to family members and friends of the victim if they do not comply. Sometimes threats to make false allegations of

paedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty ...

against the victim are made as well. This is known as webcam blackmail. An increase in webcam blackmails have been reported, and it affects both young and old, male and female alike. Webcam blackmail is also connected with webcam trolling.

History

An early use of the term appears in print in 1950 in

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. Since early 2009, The Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication (iroc2.org) began warning the public about the trend of "Sextortion" via live events and websites including www.sextortion.org. This is a trend that grew based on the birth and growth of the trend known as "sexting" whereby compromising images and videos were being shared by individuals without a real understanding of the short and long term consequences of sharing "private" content on digital tools designed for sharing. In 2009, the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ), in partnership with the Association of Women Judges in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Philippine Women Judges Association, and the Tanzania Women Judges Association, and with funding from the Government of the Netherlands, launched a three-year program on "Stopping the Abuse of Power through Sexual Exploitation: Naming, Shaming, and Ending Sextortion." Presentations on sextortion were made to judges attending the 2010 and 2012 Biennial World Conferences of the IAWJ and to NGOs attending the 2011 and 2012 meetings of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. There are also scientific studies describing the prevalence of sextortion in Europe, etc. in the Czech Republic (2017). In China, there are cases of sextortion as part of

predatory lending Predatory lending refers to unethical practices conducted by lending organizations during a loan origination process that are unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent. While there are no internationally agreed legal definitions for predatory lending, a 200 ...

to students. In 2022, the

Canadian Centre for Child Protection Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P; french: Centre canadien de protection de l'enfance) is a Canadian registered charitable organization dedicated to the personal safety of all children. More specifically, its goal is to reduce the victim ...

noted a tripling of cases compared to previous years and a change away from female victims being sextorted for images towards young male victims being sextorted for money.

Incidents

Incidents of sextortion have been prosecuted under various criminal statutes, including as

, bribery, breach of trust, corruption, sexual coercion,

, sexual assault,

child pornography Child pornography (also called CP, child sexual abuse material, CSAM, child porn, or kiddie porn) is pornography that unlawfully exploits children for sexual stimulation. It may be produced with the direct involvement or sexual assault of a ...

, () and

computer hacking A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

and

wiretapping Telephone tapping (also wire tapping or wiretapping in American English) is the monitoring of telephone and Internet-based conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the monitorin ...

. *''Anthony Stancl'' of

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, then 18, received 15 years in prison in February 2010 after he posed as a girl on

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin Mosk ...

to trick male high school classmates into sending him nude cell phone photos, which he then used to extort them for homosexual sex. *''Jonathan Vance'' of

Auburn, Alabama Auburn is a city in Lee County, Alabama, United States. It is the largest city in eastern Alabama, with a 2020 population of 76,143. It is a principal city of the Auburn-Opelika Metropolitan Area. The Auburn-Opelika, AL MSA with a population ...

, was sentenced to 18 years in prison in April 2010 after sending threatening e-mails on

and MySpace extorting nude photos from more than 50 women in three states. *''Luis Mijangos'' was sentenced to six years in prison in September 2011 for hacking into dozens of computers, stealing personal information and demanding naked images from female victims in exchange for not releasing the stolen information. Forty-four of the victims were under age 18. *''Isaac Baichu'', a federal immigration officer in New York, was sentenced to to years in prison in July 2010 after demanding sex from a 22-year-old Colombian woman in exchange for a green card. *''Steve Ellis'', an immigration adjudicator in Toronto, was sentenced to 18 months in jail in July 2010 after telling a South Korean woman he would approve her refugee claim in exchange for sex. *''Michael Ngilangwa'', a secondary school teacher in Tanzania, was sentenced to pay a fine or serve one year in prison in June 2011 after demanding sexual favors from his student in exchange for favorable exam results. *''Christopher Patrick Gunn'', 31, of

Montgomery, Alabama Montgomery is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alabama and the county seat of Montgomery County. Named for the Irish soldier Richard Montgomery, it stands beside the Alabama River, on the coastal Plain of the Gulf of Mexico. In the 202 ...

was indicted for using fake

profiles to extort nude photos and videos from underage girls in numerous states. He got 35 years in federal prison after being convicted. * In May 2010, the police of the Basque Country in

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

arrested a 24-year-old man accused of blackmailing a woman he met on an online chatroom and threatening to distribute nude photographs of her from her webcam. * 13-year-old Amanda Todd was blackmailed by an online friend into exposing her breasts to him on her webcam. Over the next few years he sent the screenshots to people she personally knew, resulting in her developing mental health issues, suffering bullying (both online and in real life) and changing schools several times. She committed

suicide by hanging Suicide by hanging is the intentional killing of oneself (suicide) via suspension from an anchor-point such as an overhead beam or hook, by a rope or cord or by jumping from a height with a noose around the neck. Hanging is often considered ...

on October 10, 2012, at the age of 15. * A video of the

Chinese Communist Party The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), officially the Communist Party of China (CPC), is the founding and sole ruling party of the People's Republic of China (PRC). Under the leadership of Mao Zedong, the CCP emerged victorious in the Chinese Civil ...

official Lei Zhengfu having sex with a woman was a part of a sextortion plot by a criminal gang. *In 2013, Daniel Perry committed suicide hours after falling victim to webcam blackmail. *''Anton Martynenko'' was sentenced to 38 years in a federal prison, after victimizing over 155 teenage boys by making around 50 fake accounts on Facebook, often those of young women, to convince the victims to send him nude photos. The accounts were also used to spread the explicit photos and videos of the victims to their high school classmates, with one boy's photos being sold on the dark web. In addition, three boys were blackmailed into meeting up with Martynenko and performing sex acts with him; two of the victims later committed suicide. Martynenko is considered the largest producer of child pornography in Minnesota history.

References

External links

{{Portal, Law, Internet * Institute for Responsible Online and Cell-Phone Communication. www.sextortion.org * Frederick S. Lane
Cybertraps for the Young
(Chicago: NTI Upstream, 2011) * Gross, Doug.

" ''

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

''. February 18, 2013. *
Cyber Alerts for Parents & Kids Tip #2: Beware of ‘Sextortion’
"
Archive

Federal Bureau of Investigation The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...

. February 10, 2012. *
A Case of ‘Sextortion’ Cons Like ‘Bieber Ruse’ Targeted Minor Girls
"
Archive

. February 5, 2013. * Morris, Kevin.
Man strips on camera for "girlfriend," gets blackmailed
" ''

The Daily Dot ''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. Founded by Nicholas White in 2011, ''The Daily Dot'' is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometo ...

''. May 6, 2013. *
Kids blackmailed into online Sex
" ''

''. September 20, 2013. * Vives, Ruben.
Glendale man sentenced to 5 years in 'sextortion' case
" ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

''. December 9, 2013. *
Sextortion scam email campaign has netted $143k in Bitcoin
" ''Thexyz''. November 13, 2018 . Cybercrime Extortion Internet culture Sex crimes Sex and the law Pornography Privacy controversies and disputes Revenge Sexual abuse Sexual misconduct Sexting