A growing sextortion epidemic is driving a tragic rise in teen suicides, and families are fighting back to hold predators — and platforms — accountable. Get the facts first on Morning Wire.
Chapter 1: What is sextortion and why is it a growing crisis among teen boys?
The FBI is warning about a continuous rise in the sexual extortion of minors online. Foreign actors specifically target teen boys in financially motivated schemes and have been linked to dozens of suicides.
In this episode, we'll hear from a lawmaker whose son tragically took his own life after being targeted and the CEO of a nonprofit teaming up with law enforcement to stop child exploitation.
I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley. It's Saturday, April 12th, and this is a weekend edition of Morning Wire. Here to discuss the rising threat of sexploitation is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Prestigiacomo. So Amanda, you've had several conversations with some of the key folks who are tackling this issue.
Chapter 2: Who is Representative Guffey and what is his personal connection to this issue?
One of them is Representative Guffey, whose son Gavin tragically took his own life after being threatened by an online scammer. He's now working to hold these predators and social media companies accountable. What did he tell you? Hey, Georgia.
Chapter 3: What laws and legislation are being proposed to combat sextortion?
Yeah, Guffey has really become a warrior in this space since Gavin passed in 2022. He was able to get Gavin's law passed just a year after he lost Gavin, and he's currently working with fellow Republican Senator Ted Cruz on Cruz's bipartisan bill called the Take It Down Act. That would force social media companies to take down sexual images of minors within 48 hours of it being flagged.
Guffey shared Gavin's story with me when I spoke to him this past week.
My son Gavin was contacted by a predator through Instagram messaging. He jumped off the video game with friends to have a chat with this female or so he thought. They began to share images. And within one hour and 40 minutes, Gavin took his life. They began to demand money, giving countdowns.
But even worse than that, after my son took his life, I'd never heard of what sextortion was or had a clue of what it was.
After his son passed, Guffey told me that his family was contacted by the scammers for more money, and he was even taunted about Gavin committing suicide.
They began to extort Gavin's 16-year-old brother, a 14-year-old cousin, and then trying to extort me as well, fully aware that Gavin had taken his life. They sent a message to me and said, did I tell you your son begged for his life?
This past January, Gavin Scammer was extradited from Nigeria to the United States and is now facing life in prison. According to the FBI and Our Rescue CEO Tammy Lee, Nigeria and other African countries are most often tied into these schemes.
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Chapter 4: How do sextortion predators operate and where are they primarily located?
Chapter 5: What role do social media platforms play in sextortion cases?
Yeah, Guffey has really become a warrior in this space since Gavin passed in 2022. He was able to get Gavin's law passed just a year after he lost Gavin, and he's currently working with fellow Republican Senator Ted Cruz on Cruz's bipartisan bill called the Take It Down Act. That would force social media companies to take down sexual images of minors within 48 hours of it being flagged.
Guffey shared Gavin's story with me when I spoke to him this past week.
My son Gavin was contacted by a predator through Instagram messaging. He jumped off the video game with friends to have a chat with this female or so he thought. They began to share images. And within one hour and 40 minutes, Gavin took his life. They began to demand money, giving countdowns.
But even worse than that, after my son took his life, I'd never heard of what sextortion was or had a clue of what it was.
After his son passed, Guffey told me that his family was contacted by the scammers for more money, and he was even taunted about Gavin committing suicide.
They began to extort Gavin's 16-year-old brother, a 14-year-old cousin, and then trying to extort me as well, fully aware that Gavin had taken his life. They sent a message to me and said, did I tell you your son begged for his life?
This past January, Gavin Scammer was extradited from Nigeria to the United States and is now facing life in prison. According to the FBI and Our Rescue CEO Tammy Lee, Nigeria and other African countries are most often tied into these schemes.
Often with these extortion schemes, you have money launderers within the United States that are transferring funds in order to get them overseas as well. And then typically overseas, in Gavin's case, it came out of Lagos, Nigeria. There is a well-known group called the Yahoo Boys that are doing a lot of these extortion schemes overseas.
According to InfoSecurity magazine, the so-called Yahoo boys will inundate high schools, youth sports teams, and universities with fake accounts and will use advanced social engineering tactics to coerce or trick their victims into sharing explicit images or footage.
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Chapter 6: How is artificial intelligence changing the landscape of sextortion?
There were about 12,600 victims, primarily all boys, and at least 20 suicides. A more recent number, according to a USA Today report, found that sextortion cases have been tied to at least 30 suicides of teen boys since 2021. And that number is likely a low estimate since some families might not even be aware that their child was a victim of sextortion due to the online nature of the crime.
Additionally, the Cyber Tip Line, which is run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMAC, received nearly 200,000 reports of online enticement of children for sexual acts, which includes extortion. That number has quadrupled since 2021, when the tip line received just under 50,000 reports.
Chapter 7: What are the latest statistics on sextortion cases and teen suicides?
Chapter 8: How are law enforcement and nonprofits responding to the sextortion epidemic?
One report found that 90% of all financially motivated sextortion victims were males between the ages of 14 and 17. The FBI saw a 20% increase in reports in just one six-month period back in 2023. From October of 2021 to March 2023, The FBI and Homeland Security investigations received more than 13,000 reports of such activity online targeting minors.
There were about 12,600 victims, primarily all boys, and at least 20 suicides. A more recent number, according to a USA Today report, found that sextortion cases have been tied to at least 30 suicides of teen boys since 2021. And that number is likely a low estimate since some families might not even be aware that their child was a victim of sextortion due to the online nature of the crime.
Additionally, the Cyber Tip Line, which is run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, or NCMAC, received nearly 200,000 reports of online enticement of children for sexual acts, which includes extortion. That number has quadrupled since 2021, when the tip line received just under 50,000 reports.
Instagram and Snapchat, according to Nick Mack, are the two most used apps for these crimes. Messages can disappear on both apps, which creates a false sense of privacy for kids using them. According to parents of numerous victims, minors will be messaged by an account they think is a female of a similar age who might tell them that they have mutual friends in common.
The conversation then turns sexual, and soon after the victim sends over explicit material, the blackmail begins. Guffey often speaks to young people about online safety, how to avoid these scams, and what to do if you ever find yourself in such a situation.
I tell them, number one, don't send images to someone that you've never met before. I mean, you don't want to send an images, period. But if you do, make sure that your face and your privates are not identified on the same picture as well. And if that does happen, don't be scared. Be brave enough to go to your parents, to go to law enforcement, to report this.
Because if you don't, if you feel like you can just pay them and just go away, they're going to continue to go after not only you, because it will never stop once you pay them money. They're going to continue to go after other teens and make them feel the same way that you feel right now. So it's very important for us to report it so we can go after these criminals.
In his son's case, the scammers were asking for only a couple hundred dollars, he told me.
I think it was $25 over to them. But of course, that's never enough. The key to this is to ensure that you never send a penny. Because once you send money over, they know that they have you.
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