n Feb. 10, for Safer Internet Day 2026, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) issued a warning about the dangers of sextortion schemes for young people. “The FBI has noticed an increase in the number of cases of sextortion against minors in recent years,” the agency stated.

The crime — which can cause extreme distress among victims who may feel isolation, shame or embarrassment — is evolving. Too often, trusted adults such as parents and educators don’t realize that young people are being targeted or have a grasp on what sextortion entails.

Knowing the basics, warning signs, resources and what to do should an incident occur are critical components of protecting children. For governance team members, being familiar with these factors, as well as what to do should a staff member be victimized, are essential.

According to the FBI’s description, “Sextortion is a term used to describe a crime in which an offender coerces a minor to create and send sexually explicit images or video. After receiving the sexually explicit content from the child, the offender threatens to release that compromising material unless the victim produces additional explicit material. In these cases, the offenders are motivated by the sexual gratification they receive from the content.”

Victims as young as age 8 have been interviewed by the FBI and the crime affects young people of all genders, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, according to the agency. The common thread victims share is access to the internet.

Financial sextortion is an iteration of the crime that follows a similar pattern, but the overall goal is to gain payment (via gift cards, mobile payment services, wire transfer, cryptocurrency or other mediums) from victims.

FBI Special Agent Chris Tomoson, who is a member of a violent crimes squad at the Sacramento Field Office and specializes in crimes against children, noted that there has been an uptick in sextortion. Male victims are more often targets for financial sextortion while female victims are more often targeted to produce more sexually exploitive content.

Between October 2022 and March 2023 alone, the FBI saw a 20 percent increase in reports of financial sextortion incidents involving minors compared to the same period the previous year. “From October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations received over 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors. The sextortion involved at least 12,600 victims — primarily boys — and led to at least 20 suicides,” according to the agency.

A 2024 report by child safety nonprofit Thorn and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) estimated that between 3.5 to 5 percent of people experience sextortion before reaching adulthood.

The FBI’s publication on internet crime complaints for 2024 reported 54,936 complaints related to extortion/sextortion with $33.5 million in losses, a 59 percent increase in complaints from the prior year, and a 9 percent increase in losses. For those aged 20 and younger, there were 3,806 counts reported with losses totaling over $1 million.

Most predators with financial-based motivations are located outside of the U.S., primarily in West African and Southeast Asian countries, according to the FBI.

Special Agent Chris Gecewicz, who works with Tomoson, explained that criminals cast a wide net, reaching out to many people in hopes some will take the bait and engage with them.

They utilize social engineering tactics, finding information a person has posted about themselves online to identify vulnerabilities and ways to make fake commonalities to build a false sense of security, opening the door for exploitation to start. The criminals often attempt to build trust by trying to establish common ground through publicly visible details like using a fake online profile or username that might include bogus interests, a location or horoscope signs.

Social media platforms and online games are common hunting grounds. Typically, victims believe they are talking to someone of a similar age even if they are a stranger. While gaming, for example, a minor might be approached by a predator who will appear friendly, gift them in-game items and then leverage those gifts to pressure them into sending explicit photos. On social media, a teen may receive a friend/follower request from a profile that they think is a classmate but is really someone who has bad intentions posing as a peer.

“Anywhere you can interact, or anywhere there’s a chat box really, there is a way for a sextortionist to reach out to a potential victim,” Gecewicz said.

Developments related to artificial intelligence (AI) technology are complicating the matter as criminals can use generative AI to create a compromising photo of a victim and use it to extort them for financial gain or real content.

The special agents said that they’ve heard of images being sent in as little as 10 minutes to just a few days from initial contact, highlighting how quickly the crime takes place.

Recent cases

This unfortunate reality played out in San Jose in 2022 when 17-year-old Ryan Last committed suicide after being the victim of a financial sextortion scheme. In a 2024 segment with Thorn, his mother, Pauline Stuart, shared that Last was a dedicated student and community member from a tight-knit family who was looking forward to attending college. In interviews, Stuart, a former special education teacher, said her family took precautions such as utilizing parental controls on her son’s phone.

One night, Last was contacted via Google Hangouts, a program his parents allowed because he had used it for school, by a stranger who he believed to be a young woman, Stuart explained. They engaged in seemingly normal conversation before things escalated and the person behind the account sent him an intimate photograph and asked for one in return, which he sent because he was “very trusting.” Then, the account reportedly demanded that Last send thousands of dollars through an app or they’d disseminate his image, which he couldn’t do. After some back-and-forth, the exchange moved to Instagram and Last was told since he wasn’t paying, he needed to provide access to his account, Stuart told Thorn. Hoping to end the encounter, he complied, but the bad actor threatened to send his photo to his friends and family if he didn’t send money.

Last was able to provide $150, but the threats and emotional manipulation continued. “He begged them, ‘Please don’t ruin my life. I don’t have any money; I can’t send any more money,’” Stuart said to Thorn. “But they continued to pressure him until he felt he had no choice but to take his life.” The situation unfolded in just eight hours, investigators found when they reconstructed the interaction.

In the years following, Stuart has advocated for online safety, sharing her family’s story to caution others about the digital dangers young people face.

The U.S. Department of Justice in 2025 announced that a group of men located in Côte d’Ivoire in West Africa had been arrested in connection to an international sextortion and money laundering scheme. Thousands of victims, including minors, were allegedly targets. Last was named as one of the sextortion victims. Additionally, “a U.S.-based accomplice … was convicted in 2023 in a California State Court and sentenced to 18 months in jail,” according to federal officials.

Another case out of the Bay Area illustrates a different way sextortion can play out. In 2025, the San Francisco Chronicle reported that a 15-year-old from Novato had been arrested for allegedly “stealing private photographs from a 13-year-old and using them in an extortion attempt.” It was alleged that the 15-year-old threatened to release the photos “unless the victim complied with sexual demands,” according to the Chronicle.

In early 2026, People reported that a high schooler from Pennsylvania was “facing more than 300 felony charges after police accused him of operating a ‘large-scale criminal network’ involving catfishing and the extortion of minors.”

Local law enforcement officials have taken notice of sextortion and are doing their part to create public awareness. A 2022 video from the San Jose Police Department, featuring Stuart, provides information and warnings for parents. A 2025 video from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department notes that the agency has been “seeing an increase in incidences of sextortion” and provides preventive tips to keep young people safe.

Parents from around the globe are taking action as well. In December, NBC News reported that “the families of two teenage boys who died by suicide filed a lawsuit [on Dec. 17] against Meta, alleging that the tech company has ignored the rising danger of sexual blackmail schemes targeting teens on Instagram.” The families are from Pennsylvania and Scotland, respectively.

A district’s perspective

In California’s Central Valley, Hanford Joint Union High School District has experienced two sextortion-related incidents involving staff in recent years, Superintendent Victor Rosa recalled, and one known scenario where a student was victimized.

Both staff members were targeted in a financial sextortion scheme via online dating platforms where the perpetrators threatened to send images from their conversations and chat logs to the school community and public, Rosa explained. In both cases, they did release content in some fashion.

During the ordeals, the respective staff members were put on leave, and the district followed the advice of its legal counsel. Rosa said that as a governance team, prompt actions were taken to properly address the situations. The district communicated with the community as appropriate, reassuring them that student safety is a top priority.

In talks with his peers, Rosa said he is surprised when sextortion appears to be a new or unknown concept, though he understands how it can be a term some want to shy away from.

Governance team members “need to understand that this exists,” Rosa said, particularly because both staff and students can be impacted.

While local educational agencies likely don’t have policies or regulations in place specific to sextortion, components may be covered under existing policies and regulations that address safety, student welfare or media literacy more broadly. Elements of sextortion like cyber harassment and safety can be covered in health units.

Helping to inform parents is a role that LEAs can choose to take on so they can educate their children on the subject as they see fit. Hanford Joint Union HSD has a student cybersafety webpage with relevant information posted as a resource for the community.

Overall, the district focuses on ensuring its student services and administrative staff are knowledgeable and prepared to provide support.

By the time a young person comes forward to someone at school or home, they are in desperate need of help, Rosa explained. They are afraid of what people will think if they find out and shouldn’t be blamed or shamed, but provided wraparound services whenever possible and assistance in mitigating the nightmare swiftly.

Resources and
warning signs

To ensure families are aware of the threats children face while online, the FBI provides internet safety presentations at local school sites. An event held at a community school “helps the parents feel more comfortable,” Tomoson said. The presentation includes a discussion about family electronic culture (e.g. if they have rules about use in place), why parent guides are key to better understanding how apps and their settings work, and preparing families for conversations with their children about what apps they use (and who they engage with online). LEAs interested in having an FBI presentation for their families are encouraged to contact the community outreach team of their nearest FBI field office.

Fostering open lines of communication between parents and children is important to prevention and intervention should an incident occur.

As record numbers of young people become immersed in the virtual world during their developmental years, sextortionists can take advantage of their naivete and vulnerabilities with dire consequences. Learning how to protect themselves online and recognize red flags (like requests to move conversations from one platform to another, especially to an encrypted platform) is key, as is knowing they have trusted adults to turn to for support without judgment.

Signs that a young person is potentially being victimized include being protective of their device, withdrawing, acting out or other deviations from typical behavior.

Should a minor be victimized, the FBI advises them to stop all communication, not make any payments, make themselves unreachable to the bad actor and document all interactions including any images that may have been exchanged. The victim should immediately file a report with local or federal law enforcement and file a tip with NCMEC (cybertipline.org).