A true explosion that cares. Between January and June of 2024, the United Kingdom and the United States saw that the number of “sexrtusions” seriously increased towards minors. According to the FBI and the National Crime Agency, the figures are alarming.
On the other side of the channel, between January and June 2024, 9,600 cases of adults who handled children online, or around 400 per week were identified, reveals the Guardian.
546,000 reports in 2024 in the United States
The phenomenon is even more important in the United States, where more than 546,000 reports have been identified by the National Center for missing and occupied children (NCEMC), an increase of 192% compared to 2023. These data are available thanks to transparency reports that are put online every year.
It is in Snapchat that these more crystallize reports, but the problem is also present on Instagram and Tiktok. The NCEMC shows that in Snapchat, 20,000 elements of worrying material have been informed, especially with images of sexual abuse in children and “sextorsions”, that is, when an adult makes a child sing to receive intimate photos or videos of him. A trend that can have dramatic consequences: since 2021, several dozen teenagers have committed suicide after being victims, the organization specifies.
Social network encryption in question
The Association for the Protection of English Children, the NSPCC, has criticized on the other hand the techniques of figures of certain platforms, easily avoiding the identification of adults behind this traffic, but also the detection of child pornographic content. Snapchat is one of the few social networks that the final encryption should not have, which probably explains why it is number 1 of this type of reports.
The Guardian also reveals having had access to a one hundred pages document containing instructions to “better exploit young users.” For this, it offers tips on the phone model to buy, its encryption techniques but also “characters” to embody.
It also makes possible “transforming victims into slaves of modern times”, feeling “forced” to reveal their intimacy. The author of this document would be Baron Martin, a 20 -year -old man arrested by the FBI in December 2024. According to the United States Ministry of Justice, he would be “the catalyst for thousands of extortion.” The researchers have also shown that this document was shared in communities of men where the sadistic, sexualized and misogynistic words are numerous. Like incels, these men who have hate for women, participate in Telegram or WhatsApp loops to motivate children’s crimes.
To stop the phenomenon, the authorities seek to improve collaboration between associations and the police, in particular to better educate the youngest, parents or educational personnel.
Source: BFM TV
