Children as young as 11 to 13 are being targeted by sextortion criminals for the first time, according to data.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said the “worrying” trend showed that criminals behind extortion attempts were casting their nets wider in an attempt to trap victims.
Sextortion is a form of blackmail where teenagers – typically boys, although incidents involving girls have also risen sharply in recent years – are tricked into sending intimate pictures of themselves to fraudsters, who have made contact on social media and messaging platforms. The criminals then demand money and threaten to share the material with others.
The UK-based internet safety watchdog said it had five confirmed reports of 11 to 13-year-olds falling victim to sextortion attempts last year, out of a total of 175 confirmed incidents involving under-17s. The 2024 total was marginally lower than the 176 recorded in the previous year, but the IWF said sextortion remained a “huge problem”.
“The fact that these perpetrators are casting the net to get 11 to 13-year-olds is worrying,” said Tamsin McNally, IWF’s hotline manager. “Although it is a small amount, I do worry that number will grow.”
Last month, parents at a primary school in Edinburgh were warned to check their children’s devices after an eight-year-old girl was reportedly a victim of a sextortion scam.
The school informed parents that an individual had been impersonating pupils on Snapchat and police confirmed that an investigation was under way after they received “several reports” of indecent images being shared.
McNally said a new trend seen by the IWF involved criminals threatening to portray victims as perpetrators of a sex crime.
“They are now saying they will send the image to others, but also make it look like you are a perpetrator of a sexual crime. That is imposing an extraordinary level of pressure to try to make victims pay the perpetrator,” she said.
Last year, the National Crime Agency (NCA) warned international cybercriminals that it could seek to extradite them as it cracked down on sextortion. West Africa, and Nigeria in particular, has become a hub for sextortion gangs, according to the NCA.
McNally said there would still be children living in fear of the consequences of a sextortion attack without being aware of an online system specially designed to take down sexual images from the internet.
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The Report Remove service, which is operated by the IWF and the children’s charity the NSPCC, allows children to anonymously flag intimate images or videos of themselves that have appeared or could appear online, including those sent to sextortion fraudsters. Tech platforms are then able to take down the image or prevent it from being uploaded.
The number of children using Report Remove surged in 2024, according to IWF. data that showed 1,142 reports were processed by the watchdog last year, a 44% increase on 2023. Nearly half the images came from the 14- to 15-year-old age group. Of the 175 sextortion incidents last year, 151 came via the Report Remove tool.
One parent, speaking anonymously, said the service had been a “gamechanger” for their family after their 16-year-old son had fallen victim to a sextortion attempt.
The IWF interim chief executive, Derek Ray-Hill, said: “It is crystal clear that there has never been a greater need for the service that the Report Remove tool provides.
“These concerning figures show that offenders continue to ruthlessly target our children online, knowing that they are vulnerable to coercion, exploitation and abuse.”