Sexting, sextortion and revenge porn among Wyoming teenagers is on the rise, experts say, with teenage boys rapidly becoming a growing target.
Cybertips involving reports of sexual internet crimes against children are also on the rise, prompting law enforcement agencies to offer parents, at no charge, an app to help them monitor their children’s online activity
In recent months, law enforcement officers have seen an increase in sextortion cases, particular among juvenile boys between the ages of 11 and 13, according to Chris McDonald, special agent and team leader for the Internet Crimes Against Children division at the Wyoming Department of Criminal Investigation.
Sextortion involves tricking someone into sharing explicit photos or videos online with someone else often posing as a peer. Once the perpetrator has those files in hand, they can be used to extort money or demand additional images or videos from the victim while threatening to share the images with their classmates or parents on social media if the teen doesn’t pay up.
Teens are fooled into it, McDonald said, because they believe they’re talking to a peer whom might also share explicit photos of themselves. But in many cases, any photos sent are actually sent by an adult or nefarious actor masquerading as a teen.
Boys are not immune from these crimes.
“It’s a misnomer that girls are exploited more than boys,” McDonald said. “The boys are being exploited just as often.”
Cybercrimes against children, in general, are up throughout the state, with Wyoming on track to have yet another record year, McDonald said.
In one month, ICAC received more than 100 tips alleging sex crimes against children that came from social media platforms, apps and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
“It scared the bejesus out of me,” McDonald said, saying this year’s report total could exceed last year’s.
Currently, the division is on target to receive about 750 tips over last year’s 615, McDonald said. In 2021, ICAC made 33 arrests based on the tips it received.
Tips, too, have skyrocketed in recent years. In 2019, the department received 262 versus 531 in 2020.
Although the number of tips received by the division continues to grow, the ICAC team doesn’t, forcing the small division of six to work harder to keep up with increased demand.
In June, ICAC was awarded the Wyoming Joint Symposium on Children and Youth Compassion in Action: Boots on the Ground Award, which is given to a group that serves child victims.
McDonald said he was proud of his team for its Herculean efforts in keeping up with tips and new cases.
Escalating Problem
The most popular platforms used for exploitation that law enforcement agencies are seeing in Wyoming are Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, although there are others.
The biggest trigger to watch for when it comes to determining whether a teen is being exploited is the level of attention the potential suspect invests in the initial communications, McDonald said.
“If someone is showing a whole lot of interest early on in the conversation, we would call that a red flag,” he said.
The biggest piece of advice he has for parents is to monitor their children’s online access and use.
To help parents and guardians, DCI is offering the Offender Watch App free for download for anyone in Wyoming.
The app allows parents to receive notifications if a child is communicating with a registered sex offender through texts, emails or phone calls.
It also notifies parents if the teen or child is in the vicinity of a registered sex offender as well as other useful tools and sample questions a parent can ask the teen to help monitor their online activity.
“I’m in awe of the power young people have in using the internet,” McDonald said, who is also a father. “But they’re just little kids in their minds and don’t yet understand the nuances of what they’re being asked to do.”
Uprising Wyoming, a nonprofit organization focused on human trafficking prevention, outreach and education, conducts regular training sessions with youth.
Executive Director Terri Markham said her organization’s data also suggests an uptick in explicit content sharing among young people in Wyoming.
“One thing we are seeing a lot of, and having increased conversations about with teens lately, is sexting, sextortion, revenge porn and pornography,” Markham said.
Her agency has collected anonymous data from Wyoming youth ages 12 and older that show these teens are taking part in these activities.
“When we bring it up at that age level, they are already dealing with it,” she said, prompting the nonprofit to create programming for younger students in an attempt to get ahead of the problem.
For more information about this issue and opportunities for education and training, contact Markham at Uprising Wyoming. Additional resources include Thorn.org and Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
DCI is offering the Offender Watch App free for download for anyone in Wyoming.