Police in Prince George, B.C., are warning about the dangers of sexual extortion after the suicide of a 12-year-old boy in their community.
The preteen took his own life on Oct. 12 and investigators have since determined his actions were in response to online sextortion, according to an RCMP news release. Police are still working to identify a suspect.
“We are calling for parents and caregivers to be honest with their youth about the dangers of online activity, especially if they are engaging in chats with people they don’t know in real life,” RCMP spokesperson Cpl. Jennifer Cooper said.
“While not every case of online sextortion will end in tragedy, the consequences of this kind of activity can follow a youth for their entire life, which needs to be something we talk about openly with our kids.”
Sad. 🙁
Tragic. I’m sure the world’s obsession with the shame and stigma around sex, images, and registries put such fear and despair into this poor kid. We had a teen (I think he was 16) a few years back who killed himself because the brilliant LE threatened him with the fear of being a sex offender for life because of sexting and trading images with his girlfriend.
If you haven’t already done so, set your phone to silence all calls from numbers not in your contacts.
This is heart breaking and his parents must be crushed. My son is 12 and I love him, and his sister, more than words can adequately describe.
In addition to the worthless scum that extorted him, I blame the government for creating the social norms that allow it to happen.
I’ll be having that talk again with my kids later to remind them that nothing, nothing, is ever so bad that they can’t come to me or their mom for help
“…we don’t typically raise our males with the idea that they can be sexually abused themselves, that they can be predated on.” No, society does not and it is a shame. Just like mental health for males and the ability to be the victim as a male, society still has a long way in coming to grips with it and making it acceptable to find help for both. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs a reality check.
Tragic, such loss for such a reason. It boggles the mind and breaks my heart.
Laws prevent nothing, they just attach a consequence to those who who get caught. As most who engage in this will not be caught either because their victim won’t say anything or the cops can’t find the perp, the laws will more often than not do nothing. In the US that would be meaningless. Americans dont actually care who gets harmed by this, how they are harmed or how many. This tragedy could be repeated hundreds of times a year, and all the US would do is put more cops on the job and increase the penalties. Then pretend that will magically fix everything, until you need even more cops.
K&D are absolutely certain that any kid that gets trapped in this was, “Asking for it!” The victim sent pics willingly to begin with… so K&D have no sympathy for them. Doesn’t mean they won’t destroy the perp, oh they will, but that’s a whole separate issue of self-righteous judgement.
It’s hard to comment on a story when they don’t even give details, such as what was the item involved in the sextortion? A sexually explicit picture of himself? Of him and another person? Email messages demonstrating that he was in a relationship with another male? The fact that a 12 year old boy is involved makes us all want to comment on the article. But if we don’t have the details, we’re doing nothing but speculating
Not to sound flippant, but suicide is a personal choice that are often the result from a (world closing-in) catalyst. Instead of looking at the preexisting and underlying variables that preceded the choice, we predictably start finger-pointing with blanket hate and emotional outrage to assign blame. When someone dies from a drug overdose, like Fentanyl or whatever, it’s indirect suicide and a (we should have seen it coming) tragedy, but when someone takes their own life out of fear of being shamed and humiliated, we direct hate and go after the entire legion of those associated with sex crimes.