Sextortion
What sextortion is and how to support children and young people affected by it.
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Defining sextortion
Financially motivated sexual extortion or 'sextortion' is a type of blackmail where criminals threaten to share nude or semi-nude images, videos or details about someone online. The motive behind sextortion is usually to get money or to exploit the person that’s been targeted in another way, such as getting them to share more images.
Sextortion is a distressing crime which can often occur through catfishing, where a person uses a fake identity to gain trust. It can be committed by individuals or sometimes by a group of people working together.
It is important to encourage vigilance and support victims with an incident if they are targeted.
Information for schools
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Financially motivated sexual extortion: alert for education settings
This information produced by the National Crime Agency is an alert relevant for all schools and education settings in Wales.
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Sharing nude images: training video
This 10 minute training video is designed to help schools understand the latest image sharing developments and safety concerns and with preventing and responding to incidents.
Views from the experts
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Sextortion: sexually coerced extortion
In this article the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) explains what sextortion is and what to do if you, your child or someone you know are a victim of sextortion.
Information for children and young people
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Online issues and worries: sharing nudes
Information which explains some risks to be aware of and where to go for help.