Sextortion is a growing threat. Here's what Kentucky is doing to protect teens.
There is a steep climb in 14 to 17-year-old boysbeing targeted for sextortion; however, younger boys — or anyone can become a target of online sexual extortion. Teenage boys can be targeted by adult predators pretending to be young girls. Predators feign a romantic interest in the boys on gaming platforms, apps and social media sites. Mainly, money is sought after trickery to get sexually explicit photos from unsuspecting youths from their cell phones or computers; however, victims can be young adults as well as adults. Victims are threatened relentlessly with the release of the photos to teachers, classmates, friends, parents, etc.
The end of 2023, I was horrified to read the U.S. Department of Justice had sounded the alarm in 2022 about the explosive increase of 3,000 children who became victims of Sextortion — with more than a dozen dying by suicide. Today, 30 young teens have taken their lives and a few cases have been ruled as homicides. Because of long-time human trafficking work, I quickly realized sextortion can lead to perpetrators engaging victims to become sex trafficked for financial payments. Legislation was needed.
As president of United Nations Association of the USA Kentucky Division (UNA-USA KY Div.), I began forming a Kentucky Sextortion Coalition with the goal for a sextortion bill in the 2024 Kentucky General Assembly. I reached out to Sen. Julie Raque Adams to be the sponsor.
Looking at data from National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) released on April 15, 2024, a graph of monthly reports spanning two years showed exponential growth in sextortion reports: In 2022 there were 10,731 reports, compared to 26,718 reports a year later. Likely, many more were not reported.
The KY Sextortion Coalition helped pull together information for what would soon become Senate Bill 181, sponsored by Sen. Adams. But, SB181 did not move much and died — perhaps because of the emphasis on the budget.
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Nevertheless, the KY Sextortion Coalition held meetings and created an action plan for more education and advocacy. We were not deterred from the mission to pass a sextortion bill in the commonwealth.
When the Kentucky General Assembly kicked off its session in January, the coalition continued to update flyers, provide information, data and sextortion cases to put teen faces with stories told by parents facing the devastating loss of their children.
On Feb. 6, Senate Bill 73, which makes sexual extortion a felony and allows for enhanced penalties, was presented in the Senate Judiciary Committee and got "yes" votes from all present. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Adams, also requires schools to inform students about sextortion and how victims can get help.
SB 73 got unanimous approval on the Senate Floor and went on to get unanimous approval before the House Judiciary Committee and the full House. Now, the bill is on the desk of Gov. Andy Beshear.
Meanwhile, California is using SB 73 as model legislation. We hope more states will enact legislation, too.
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To help victims, please provide the following: 1-800-CALL-FBI, 988 suicide prevention hotline, NCMEC's Cybertipline.org or Homeland Security. These crimes can devastate victims and their families.
While Sextortion is a global problem, here in Kentucky, we can:
Help bring awareness for parents to talk to children.
Help the public understand that images can be taken from their cell phones, even if in Snap Chat, Instagram, Facebook, gaming or video chats, etc.
Insist that everyone be vigilant to close the camera lens on cell phones and computers and TVs — especially when undressing or changing clothes.
Let all know that hacking a victim's device to gain access and control of the webcam or phone camera to obtain images or videos can devastate lives.
More laws will be needed as AI and other electronic devices are created and used. Multiple people are being extorted daily by even one predator. It is lucrative and they will not stop until laws force them to face responsibility.
It only took one person to step forward to begin to hold predators accountable for their crimes. I hope you will be that person in the future!
Teena Halbig is the Kentucky Sextortion Coalition lead president, United Nations Association of the USA Kentucky Division.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Sexual extortion is hurting teens. KY is fighting back. | Opinion
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