Julie Inman Grant

That's to make them panic so that they will pay

We've had young people come to us who've had to negotiate and say, you know, I'm 16.

I don't have $10,000.

And they will negotiate down to get what they can.

But what we've also seen is once you pay, they know that you're willing to pay and they will keep coming back and they will hold on to that imagery.

And they'll also be relentless.

They'll be very persistent.

You may have blocked them on Snap, but they might find you on Messenger or iMessage or Telegram and try and reach you in different ways.

So just be sure that you're blocking, you're taking screenshots, you're collecting evidence, not only of the account it came from, but what kind of payment mechanisms are they asking you to use?

You know, we work with other organizations like Oztrak, and they do that work of tracking down where the financing is going.

But the most important thing is get support.

Talk to a person you trust.

Talk to a parent.

I've talked to a lot of parents who've lost children to sexual extortion.

And every single one says to me, we were right down the hall.

They would have just knocked on the door.

We would have helped them.

We would have helped them through this.

Oh, absolutely.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.