In the lead up to the end of year school holidays, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) is asking education departments to share important safety information within their departments and school communities to help prevent sextortion. Sextortion is a form of online blackmail where someone tricks or coerces you into sending sexual images of yourself and then threatens to share the images unless you comply with their demands. The ACCCE is receiving around 300 reports of financial sextortion per month, with the majority of reports involving 13-17-year-olds. There are serious safety concerns for victims, with instances of self-harm attributed to this crime. 

The ACCCE has a number of resources to support school communities including:

• Downloadable posters
• Animations
• ThinkUKnow online blackmail and sexual extortion response kit
• Messaging kits and social media assets

To continue raising awareness of this issue amongst young Australians, the ACCCE recently launched a new education initiative to increase sextortion support for young people alongside Kids Helpline, Meta and US youth prevention program NoFiltr.

For more information and access to resources visit https://www.accce.gov.au/sextortionhelpOnline child sexual exploitation, including sextortion, can be reported to https://www.accce.gov.au/report The ACCCE would like to remind victims of this crime they will never be in trouble for seeking help at any stage, even if they have already sent images and paid money.