SEXTORTION – A GLOBAL EPIDEMIC

Amanda Todd tells her harrowing, “never-ending” story about being a victim of sextortion to warn other children – without ever saying a word. Instead, the 15-year-old holds up flashcards, and the words she’s written on them become more painful to read as she works her way through the stack in her hands.

A chance meeting in a chat room on the internet would send Amanda, then a 13-year-old, spiraling to the depths of depression over the next two years and make her the target of cruel cyberbullies. Her new online friend had told her she was “stunning, beautiful, perfect” and convinced her to flash her breasts on her webcam. He later threatened her to “put on a show for me” or he’d share the topless image online with everyone she knows. He was true to his word.

Now a powerful new documentary, “Sextortion: The Hidden Pandemic,” shows how child predators target their victims on the internet and tells the story of a Navy Top Gun pilot who groomed hundreds of children all over the world and extorted them for explicit sexual images. The producers have dedicated their documentary in memory of Amanda Todd and to all victims of sextortion.

The documentary, which was produced by the award-winning Auroris Media production company, highlights one of the largest international sextortion cases investigated by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Justice Department.

“Everyone should watch this documentary,” said Scott Bernstein, CEO of CRI. “Sexual predators have found a way to extort children in the privacy of their homes. They don’t need a key to get in; just a device connected to the internet. They secretly coerce their underage victims to produce sexual images, to have sex with them or give them money.”

The producers, Maria and Stephen Peek, first heard about sextortion in 2019 and the devastating impact it was having on children. They learned how child predators, often posing as teenagers, have become expert at grooming children they meet online, making them feel special and loved. Once they gain their trust, they then threaten to not only share their sexually explicit images online if they don’t comply with their demands but to harm their families if they dare tell anyone.

The more the couple read about this growing threat on the internet, they knew they had to help get the word out. As the parents of two daughters, 10 and 13, they realized their children were in the highest-risk age group being targeted by child predators on the internet.

“It was very personal for us,” said Stephen, who knew many parents, like them, did not realize this was happening to both girls and boys on the internet, often in their own homes. “We knew this story had to be told.”

It wasn’t easy. Visually showing child sexual exploitation in any medium is difficult considering the age of victims and the sexual nature of the crime. But making a documentary in the throes of a pandemic compounded those challenges, yet the producers felt an urgency to tell this story.

At CRI, Bernstein says “we operate 24 hours a day, 7 days per week” to steadfastly pursue these cases and offer closure. Since we began operating it in 1997, we’ve received more than 21,000 reports, a staggering number that has increased exponentially in recent years, 640 in the last year alone.

Our reports of online enticement, which includes sextortion, have dramatically spiked, increasing 98% from 2019 to 2020, part of an upward trend. Once retained by a parental/custodial parent, we engage the assignment with due diligence and investigative methodologies not matched by others. According to the international media, CRI is at the frontlines and puts boots on the ground in a contemporaneous fashion to alleviate suffering and return those home safely and securely.

“From what we’ve seen, it only stops when the child either tells an adult or the offender is identified in some sort of law enforcement investigation,” said Lindsey, during an interview for the documentary. “Unfortunately, these cases can have really tragic consequences. Kids can become depressed, and we’ve even seen some cases where children have taken their own lives.”

Scott Bernstein who spearheads CRI is an analyst, criminal profiler, and criminal science behaviorist for all network and cable news. He has been featured on shows like ’60 Minutes’, ‘Oprah’, America’s Most Wanted, and dozens more. Print media has covered the exploits of CRI over 90 million times in the past 20 years and Bernstein was the feature article and on the magazine covers of ‘Soldier of Fortune’, ‘Undercover’, ‘Tactical’, ‘Counter Terrorism’, and ‘Guns n Ammo’.

Sextortion is an everyday occurrence with no end in sight. Bernstein, unit chief of the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit at Child Recovery International, remarked that since he began working to combat child exploitation in 1997, sextortion cases have “drastically shot up,” in great part because of how easily accessible the internet is now to all ages.

In chat rooms and forums online, child predators are now teaching each other the tools and tricks of the trade – how to target kids, how to groom them, how to evade law enforcement, said Bernstein.

“The deviancy is getting worse,” Bernstein said. “Now it’s causing kids to cut or kill themselves. We’re out there trying to stop it.”

The unit chief said he believes prevention is key to helping unsuspecting children from falling victim to these relentless child predators.

The producers said there’s prevention material for elementary students but not a lot for middle and high school students who are most at risk. They’re working with HSI and NCMEC to use parts of their documentary to create resources that can be shared in schools “to save the next kid” and have created a discussion guide on their website at www.sextortionfilm.com.

Carol Todd, mother of Amanda, explains in the documentary how she found out her daughter was being sextorted in December 2010 after receiving a link with a photo of her daughter shirtless that was further linked to an adult pornography site. Amanda’s friends also received the photo and called police, who showed up at Carol’s home in Canada for a safety check.

To watch Amanda’s YouTube video, go to https://youtu.be/vOHXGNx-E7E)

The man facing charges in Amanda’s case, including extortion, Aydin Coban, 42, was convicted in the Netherlands on charges unrelated to Amanda’s case and was extradited to Canada in December to stand trial this summer. He has denied the charges.

After Amanda ended her life, Carol Todd, an educator, started the Amanda Todd Legacy Society to spread awareness about sextortion and cyberbullying. She said that if her daughter had not made the YouTube video, her story would not have been shared around the world. It would have been a suicide, she said, something people don’t talk about.

“There weren’t many stories out there,” said Carol. “I became interested in sharing Amanda’s story so kids wouldn’t fall into the same trap. It became my life’s work.”

#sextortion, #sextrafficking, #humantrafficking #kidnapping #Child Recovery International

If you and your family or friends and become the next victim of sextortion, sex trafficking, human trafficking and even organ harvesting should enlist the services of Child Recovery International. Please contact them for a free initial consultation if your family is affected by this criminal enterprise likened to a cartel. It is global terrorism, or call CRI at 845-270-7777.