NEWS RELEASE
TIMMINS POLICE SERVICE
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This week, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (C3P) launched a new campaign designed to reduce the number of online sextortion cases among teenage boys.
According to reported online incidents, C3P has seen an increase of 89 per cent over the past two years in online sextortion cases among teenage boys.
Sextortion, essentially, is blackmail. Individuals threaten to send a sexual image or video of someone if that person does not pay money, or send more sexual content. The offender may often times be an adult posing as a teen.
The Don’t Get Sextorted, Send a Naked Mole Rat campaign uses humour to connect with boys and deliver the serious message ‘don’t get sextorted.’ The naked mole rat character is portrayed in a video, as well as photos and memes that can be sent as a prankster-style alternative to those asking for nudes online.
To view the photos and video, please visit here.
Timmins Police Criminal Investigation Section Sgt. Lorne Yee added that the best way to prevent inappropriate images from circulating is by not sending them at all.
“If you send out a digital picture, there is no way of getting it back,” explained Yee. “Your boyfriend or girlfriend may not be your boyfriend or girlfriend tomorrow. If there is no picture, there is no way to ‘sextort’ you.”
The Timmins Police Service is a proud partner agency of the Provincial Strategy to Protect Children from Sexual Exploitation on the Internet. Operated by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection, www.cybertip.ca is a website the public can visit at any time to report any incidents of the online sexual exploitation of children.
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