NSPCC reports sharp rise in children being blackmailed over sexual images in UK

"The NSPCC said contacts with its Childline service relating to online sexual abuse and exploitation rose by 36% last year, driven by an increase in cases related to online blackmail. Evidence of the rise in online blackmail came as MPs said that maintaining the status quo in social media regulation was not acceptable, before the closing date for submissions to a government consultation on online safety."

"The child protection charity said the most common examples of blackmail were: financial sextortion, where victims are tricked into sending explicit selfies and are then sent demands for money in exchange for not releasing the images; being threatened with images taken from children's phones and turned into explicit images using AI; and being forced to send fresh explicit images by a former partner."

"Blackmail threats were discussed in two out of five online abuse-related counselling sessions at Childline last year, where children contact the service to report abuse and receive advice from professionally trained advisers. There were 2,444 sessions related to online sexual abuse and exploitation in the year to 31 March, with blackmail being mentioned in 1,043 of them."

"The NSPCC published the data after child safety experts recommended that schools remove pictures of pupils' faces from their websites and social media accounts because blackmailers are using them to create sexually explicit images by manipulating the photos with AI tools. Chris Sherwood, the NSPCC's chief executive, said it was crucial the government used the safety consultation as a springboard to force tech platforms to make these spac"

Contacts to Childline about online sexual abuse and exploitation rose by 36% in the year to 31 March, with online blackmail driving much of the increase. Blackmail threats appeared in 1,043 of 2,444 sessions related to online sexual abuse and exploitation. Common patterns included financial sextortion, where victims are tricked into sending explicit selfies and then face demands for money to prevent release. Other cases involved threats to use images from children’s phones and convert them into explicit images using AI, and coercion by former partners to send new explicit images. Children also reported being impersonated as teenage girls or being threatened after sending photos to older men. Experts recommended removing pupils’ faces from school websites and social media to reduce AI-based manipulation risks.

Read at www.theguardian.com