03/12/2021
The Washington County, Virginia Sheriff’s Office has received an increase in reports of online s*xual predators attempting to exploit children in the community. In the past week, we have had two twelve-year-old females exploited; one female left home and traveled to Richmond, Virginia before she was located. One of the females used Tinder, a dating app, where she was able to appear older and meet predators. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, children have had more access and been more active on the internet than ever before. This has left them vulnerable to cyber predators.
Other jurisdictions are experiencing a type of exploitation known as s*xtortion. Sextortion begins when a predator reaches out to a young person over a video game, app, or social media account. Through deception, manipulation, money and gifts, or threats, the predator convinces the young person to produce an explicit video or image. When the young person starts to resist requests for more images, the predator will use threats of harm or exposure of the images to pressure the child to continue producing content.
Those involved in the s*xtortion of children often:
•Approach a child on social media after using it to learn about the child’s interests, friends, school, family, etc.
•Intentionally move their communications with the child from one online platform to another (e.g., moving from social media to private video chat or messaging apps)
•Use tactics to coerce a child, including:
o Reciprocation (“I’ll show you, if you show me”)
o Initially offering something to the child, such as money or drugs, in exchange for s*xually explicit photos/videos
o Pretending to work for a modeling agency to obtain s*xual images of the child
o Developing a bond with the child by establishing a friendship/romantic relationship
o Secretly recording s*xually explicit videos of the child during video chats
o Physically threatening to hurt or s*xually assault the child or the child’s family members
o Using multiple online identities to contact a child
o Pretending to be younger and/or a member of the opposite s*x
o Accessing the child’s online account without authorization and stealing s*xual images or videos of the child
o Threatening to create s*xual images or videos of the child using digital-editing tools
o Saving s*xually explicit conversations with the child and threatening to post them online
Please be vigilant against these predators by talking to your children, monitoring their phones for unapproved apps, explaining the dangers of predators, explaining that once a photo is sent it is out of their control, and to never share personal information over the internet. If you know of a child that has been enticed over the internet by a predator please contact your local law enforcement. More detailed information can be obtained from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
