Boys are being targeted by an “unimaginably cruel” wave of online sexual extortion, the National Crime Agency (NCA) has warned.
While girls are typically the majority of victims in cases of child sexual exploitation and abuse, a disturbing 90 per cent of “sextortion” victims are male, aged between 14 and 17.
The alarming trend is driven by organised crime groups operating overseas, the NCA reports. These criminals manipulate and blackmail young boys into giving them money, threatening to release intimate images online if they refuse. The NCA has identified Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and the Philippines as the primary locations of these perpetrators.
Growing concerns about the devastating impact of sextortion, including victims driven to suicide, have prompted the NCA to launch a major campaign to raise awareness among young boys about the dangers they face online.
The campaign, launched on Thursday, will target boys aged 15 to 17 on social media platforms including Instagram, Reddit and Snapchat.
It aims to educate teenagers on how sextortion works, the tactics offenders use, and how to report incidents.
What is sextortion?
Sextortion typically involves offenders coercing victims into sending nude or semi-nude photos — or manipulating existing images — before threatening to expose them unless they pay money.
In some cases, blackmail has occurred within an hour of first contact.
NCA director of threat leadership Alex Murray said the crime has driven some victims to take their own lives.
He said: “Sextortion is unimaginably cruel and can have devastating consequences for victims.
“This campaign will help empower young boys, giving them the knowledge to spot the dangers posed by this crime type and how to report it.
“Sadly, teenagers in the UK and around the world have taken their own lives because of sextortion, which has been a major factor behind launching this campaign.”
The NCA’s CEOP Safety Centre received 380 sextortion reports in 2024 alone.
Meanwhile, UK police recorded an average of 117 monthly reports involving under-18s in the first five months of the same year.
In the United States, the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children received more than 28,000 sextortion reports globally in 2024 – up from 26,718 the previous year.
Research commissioned by the NCA ahead of the campaign found that 74% of boys surveyed did not fully understand sextortion, while a similar proportion failed to recognise requests for nude images as a warning sign.
Nearly three-quarters did not know how to report the crime, and only 12% believed they could be at risk.
Alongside the campaign, the NCA has issued guidance for parents and carers on how to recognise sextortion risks, talk to their children about the dangers, and support victims.
The campaign follows an unprecedented NCA alert to teachers last April, which reached an estimated two-thirds of UK teaching staff.
Teachers reported feeling better equipped to recognise and respond to cases of sextortion as a result.
The campaign comes amid rising concerns about child sexual abuse, with recent figures revealing that nearly 40,000 such offences were committed by children in 2023.
Analysis of data from 44 police forces in England and Wales found that more than half of the 115,489 child sexual abuse and exploitation offences recorded last year were committed by offenders aged 10 to 17.
