Mar 29, 2024 By Jon Andreassi 3 min read

The FBI’s Pittsburgh field office recently issued a warning about a rise in “sextortion” cases involving juveniles.

Last week, the agency held a press conference to provide information for parents and children to be aware of when accessing the internet.

According to the FBI’s website, various online groups are targeting youngsters aged 8 to 17 to persuade them to record sexually explicit acts, self-harm or various acts of violence.

The groups often use threats and information gathered from public social media profiles to coerce the victims. Then, the recordings are used to further extort them.

Tom Kolencik, public information officer for Uniontown police, said parents should have parental controls set up on their children’s phones, if they do not already.

“That’s a must,” Kolencik said.

He added that something the department has found useful for parents is to create a “contract” with their kids, setting parameters for cellphone use and internet access.

The child may get the benefit of mom or dad paying the bill, but that comes with parents getting unfettered access to the phone, and having to approve every social media post or picture that is sent.

Kolencik notes that Uniontown does not get complaints concerning juveniles engaging with strangers on the internet. The more common issue is juveniles sharing sexually explicit photos with each other.

“Kids are getting pictures of other kids and sending them. That’s just a fact,” Kolencik said.

He added that juveniles should be aware that they are committing a crime when they create or share this material.

While Uniontown police do not tend to deal with children being targeted by online predators, it is something they have seen with adults.

According to Kolencik, the department has received reports of people being extorted for money after sharing a picture with someone they met on a dating website. In these cases the person tends to threaten to share inappropriate pictures with friends and family of the victim if they do not pay money.

“It’s no bluff,” Kolencik said of the threat to share the pictures.

When it comes to kids though, the FBI encourages parents to actively monitor the internet use of their children, and to use discretion when posting any pictures or personal content online.

Kolencik said it’s important for juvenile victims to feel like they can tell a guardian or adult if they are in a situation where they feel unsafe or are being threatened in some way. He said establishing a “no questions asked” policy can help in this regard. Meaning simply that the juvenile knows the first priority is going to be their safety and well-being.

“That child knows I can call mom, dad or guardian, and we can talk about it another day,” Kolencik said. “The juveniles themselves are more accepting of that than you would think.”