Suicide under threat, who’s killing teenage boys online?

Send us Fan MailExploring the world is normal for young people, but finding new “friends” online can be deadly. Cybercrimes like sextortion over pictures real or A.I. generated, wire fraud, and targeted harassment are skyrocketing and children, especially teenage boys, are in the crosshairs of online predators. These criminals aren’t breaking into homes in the traditional sense, they are crawling inside through the internet and setting up shop on websites where they can target children and teens.A series of recent headline-making tragedies has put these serious crimes – which are a problem across the world – back in the spotlight. The calculated attacks on vulnerable and inexperienced children use intense, fast-paced manipulation and control tactics to demand and threaten money, information, or even sadistic behavior from their victims. One in five teens surveyed in a recent report experienced sextortion, a form of sexual exploitation that combines "sex" and "extortion" or blackmail. It involves a bad actor threatening to distribute a victim's private or sexually explicit images or videos unless the victim complies with certain demands, and victims are never at fault. The parents who lost children to suicide in these cases never saw it coming until they awoke to their worst nightmare. Join us for the latest episode of the Gulf Coast Confidential Podcast, “Suicide under threat, who’s killing teenage boys online?”  Support the show