Sextortion crimes on the rise in St. Pete

ST. PETE, Fla. - More children and adults are falling victim to sextortion crimes so far this year compared to last year, according to the St. Pete Police Department.

"For the child side, we're seeing a 66% influx since last year," SPPD Det. Henry Snowden said. "For the adult side, we've seen an approximately 44% influx since last year."

According to Snowden, one of their youngest victims is about nine-years-old. 

These crimes begin when kids meet someone in an online environment, such as social media and gaming platforms, with adults, commonly dating apps.

"They get comfortable with that person. That person convinces them to send them an inappropriate or a nude photo," Snowden said. "Then that person would immediately start requesting money. If they don't send money, then that's when they'll start threatening to expose those pictures online or to different family members."

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Almost one in five teenagers have sent a sexual text message, according to the National Center For Missing And Exploited Children.

During the first five months of this year, SPPD detectives investigated 34 sextortion cases involving kids and adults: That's more than twice the number reported to police last year in the same time frame.

"A lot of the time, these crimes are difficult to solve because you have a lot of these suspects that may be overseas. They may use different IP addresses where it's hard to track them down," Snowdon said.

According to the FBI, many of these sextortion schemes originate outside the United States and primarily in West African countries such as Nigeria and Ivory Coast.

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In 2022, the FBI announced over 3,000 minor victims were targeted across the United States.

"Unfortunately, we have had cases where people have sent up to thousands of dollars [to the criminal]," Snowden said.

The National Center For Missing And Exploited Children offers a service called Take It Down, which works to remove these explicit images online.

But law enforcement is encouraging parents to pay close attention.

"Be more aware of what your child is doing online, on their cell phones, on these gaming platforms, and the people they're talking to," Snowden said.