Source: psychologytoday.com 12/30/23
Men are being targeted for sextortion at increased rates in the U.S. and beyond.
Key points
- Sextortion is a form of image-based sexual abuse that is growing nationwide.
- During COVID-19, men experienced higher rates of sextortion than women.
- Sextortion has negative psychological, physical, and social consequences for victims.
“And then all of a sudden I got messages late at night with all sorts of threats” said Alex. “Um, things about sharing [intimate] photos about the things we had. And threatening me.” Alex continued “Depression set in. I was so angry at myself. I was so angry at myself and I felt so stupid. That I fell into like such a, um, you know, a trap.”
This participant in our research was a victim of sextortion. A combination of “sexual” and “extortion,” sextortion is when a perpetrator threatens to distribute sexually-explicit images unless a victim complies with their demands. These demands may include money, additional images, sexual favors, and more. In some cases, victims have paid out thousands of dollars in response to perpetrators’ threats. In another case, a perpetrator used sextortion to help secure legal rights to a shared home.
Perpetrators of sextortion get access to these images through a variety of means. They can steal or hack into victim’s electronic devices, or record victims without consent. Perpetrators can also digitally manipulate images of victims using AI to make them appear sexual. In other cases, consensually-shared sexual images may be used for sextortion by current or former intimate partners (aka “revenge porn”). Finally, perpetrators can target victims in romance scams through online dating apps.
While many victims of sextortion are women, it might surprise you to hear that this one was a man.
😳😩 This is horrible.😬 And it’s shockingly prevalent, leading to numerous teen boys’ suicides.
So many news articles. 😩
Just Google search “sextortion suicide“. 😢😞
Pure conjecture: Natural progression from one kind of porn to another? When regular porn no longer works, move on to CP…. then this? If this the same as the progression of drug addiction… when more and more no longer works, go to stronger and stronger?
Certainly some of these people are just using this for financial gain, and nothing else. This is just an easy way to blackmail someone out of whatever you can get. It’s possible, and I think probable, that the blackmailers that only ask for financial gain or only interested in that. Only the ones that ask for other things have motives other than financial, and some of them are progressing through their “drug” addiction?
Possible… plausible…. probable…. nonsense? What do you think?
I added CP to my alcohol addiction, because booze alone no longer did the trick. I need stronger magic, but switching to stronger substances didn’t appeal to me, so I found something that did. That’s why I ask…. because maybe some of these folks are doing the same thing I did, but in a slightly different way?
Maybe they progressed through CP to this, or bypassed it in favor of this? Maybe all the arrests for CP made them seek out a “Safer alternative”?
Again, only talking about people that demanded payments other than financial ones. It’s quite possible that the majority of the blackmailers, maybe even the super-majority, really only wanted money… even if they asked some victims to put a “cherry on top” of the cash? I mean if you’re blackmailing people, might as well get as much as you want of whatever you can?
Even if the only thing you’re interested in is money, but then all of a sudden, you have Sweet Thang on the hook for your blackmail… you still only ask for money, never anything else? I think some might… once in awhile, even if there sole motivation to blackmail people was financial.
Anyone have landlords knowing the difficulty a registrant has with housing use that to extort concessions?
This is just another reason to ban the registry. Having your name and address public on the registry is food for these sick, criminal extortionists. the registry gives them a list to work from. Although the information is public, I have maneuvered for many years without a good number of people finding out. They just know me as a pleasant, hardworking guy. So one of these reprobates could further ruin the small life I have built for myself by further exposing me publicly. This registry is nothing but a social pariah.
Criminals and sadists exploiting a moral panic. Who knows how many foreign governments have compromised Americans in sensitive positions in this way. I’d wager thousands, perhaps tens of thousands. Moral panics are a rot.
I hope this rag has gotten better about validating its sources and its writers before publication given it was the rag that published the now debunked, but previously accepted “frightening and high” crap.
From the very magazine that put us in this situation that the risk of repeat offences was “Frightening and High” that was quoted by SCOTUS.