It starts quietly, with a notification glowing on a teen’s phone—a message from someone new that feels exciting and risk free. For many teen boys, these moments happen in the everyday spaces where they scroll social media, play video games, and message with friends.
In these online places that feel safe and familiar, this once-harmless chat escalates into a whiplash of fear. After chatting for a while, the perpetrator shows the teen an explicit photo of them, either real or AI-fabricated, and asks for money in exchange for not sharing it. This is a form of blackmail known as financial sexual extortion, also called sextortion.
Struggling with shame and guilt, many teen boys try to handle these terrifying situations all on their own—leading to significant mental health risks, including severe anxiety, hypervigilance, depression, and even suicide attempts.
When they understand how sextortion works and how common it is, parents and other adults can break this cycle of fear and help teens feel supported in real and online spaces.
What You’ll Learn
- What is sextortion?
- Why do teen boys face a higher risk of sextortion?
- How are AI deepfakes escalating sextortion?
- What are the warning signs that a teen is being targeted?
Quick Read
Financial sextortion is a fast-growing crime that disproportionately targets teen boys and carries serious mental health risks. What begins as a flirtatious online interaction can quickly turn into threats, fear, and shame when the perpetrator demands money in exchange for not sharing explicit images or videos of the teen.
AI plays a role in this crime, as AI-generated images are often used as leverage for this form of blackmail. In other cases, the perpetrator asks for the images by posing as a peer.
Many teen boys try to handle sextortion alone, driven by guilt, shame, fear of judgment, or pressure to appear in control, which can intensify anxiety, depression, and suicide risk. Understanding how sextortion works, recognizing warning signs, and responding with calm, compassionate support can interrupt this cycle and help teens feel safe asking for help.
What Is Sextortion and Financial Sextortion?
According to The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), sextortion is a form of child sexual exploitation in which children are threatened or blackmailed, most often with the possibility of having nude or sexual images of them shared with the public.
The explicit pictures or videos might be shared by the victim during early stages of the chat, or it might be produced by AI. The perpetrator may demand money, sexual content, or sexual activity from the child. If the victim does not comply right away, the predator may continue to harass them.
NCMEC’s findings from 2025 show that financial sextortion is continuing to rise. Cases grew from 13,842 in the first six months of 2024 to 23,593 in the first six months of 2025. More than two-thirds of reports are financially motivated, and predators are often based outside the United States.
How Does Sextortion Happen?
Sextortion targeting teens can unfold like this:
- A seemingly ordinary online interaction begins on social media, messaging apps, or gaming platforms. The conversation can feel exciting. Often, the perpetrator poses as a peer or admirer, using flattery and shared interests to build trust.
- The predator begins to shift the flirty interactions toward more sexual exchanges. That’s when they ask the victim to send them a suggestive or explicit photo or video.
- If the teen doesn’t send an image, the perpetrator may create a “deepfake nude”—an AI-generated image of the teen using their face and a fake body.
- Once they create or receive images, the predator uses them to threaten the teen. Most often, they demand money in exchange for not sharing the image publicly.
How Sextortion Isolates Teens
This dynamic can be terrifying for anyone, but for a teen, it can feel like there’s nowhere to turn and that they are to blame. Teens may also have a hard time recognizing that this is a form of abuse and that they are a victim.
If they sent the image to the predator, the teen may feel it’s their fault and they just need to “deal with it,” instead of seeking help. Plus, they are often embarrassed about falling for the scam and too ashamed to explain the situation to an adult.
It’s essential for helping professionals, parents, and caretakers to understand that sextortion is abuse and a crime, regardless of how it starts. No teen deserves to be threatened, manipulated, or exploited.
Why Teen Boys Are Especially Vulnerable to Financial Sextortion
One report finds that 90 percent of financial sextortion victims are male and between the ages of 14 and 17. Teen boys and even young men may be less likely to report sextortion because there is an intense culture around staying silent and dealing with challenges on their own.
Fear and guilt also play a significant role. Instead of focusing on getting help, they worry about disappointing their parents, getting in trouble, or being judged. Some teen boys may believe that their parents won’t take them seriously or that they deserve the treatment because of the choices they made.
As a result, teen boys may try to manage sextortion on their own. This may mean trying to comply with the demands of the abuser while isolating and withdrawing from loved ones as they try to keep their dark secret.
The Mental Health Impact of Sexual Extortion
The loss of control that sextortion victims experience is deeply violating, triggering immense feelings of shame, panic, and mental distress. They may question their own reality, fear potential damage to their reputation, and experience symptoms similar to trauma reactions, including hypervigilance, anxiety, and complete withdrawal. Even when the victims know the media is fake, the emotional harm is very real for them and increases their mental health risk.
From October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations received over 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors. There were 12,600 victims—primarily boys—and at least 20 suicides among this group.
A series of interviews with parents whose teens died by sextortion-related suicide showed that the events took place within short windows of time, often less than 24 hours. One teen, Braden Markus, died by suicide less than 30 minutes after sending nude photos to a predator posing as a teen girl.
Are Teen Girls Victimized by Sextortion?
Although teen boys are targeted at significant rates for financial sextortion, it’s essential to understand that other forms of sextortion, such as demands for explicit photos, is 77% female victims that dominated sextortion cases prior to the financial gain explosion.
How AI and Technology Are Fueling Sextortion
Advances in artificial intelligence, along with greater access to technology, have made sextortion more sophisticated, faster moving, and harder to detect than it was even last year.
Blackmail can now be perpetrated quickly and at a massive scale—sometimes even without prior interaction with the victim. AI has lowered barriers for predators while increasing the confusion, fear, and distress of victims.
Here’s how AI tools are involved in sextortion:
Deepfakes
Predators can use AI to create images, videos, and audio of a victim. AI can produce explicit sexual content that looks real but is entirely fake. A single photo posted on social media of a teen on vacation or at a picnic with friends can be used to make nude or sexual images.
NCMEC data shows that reports of generative artificial intelligence related to child sexual exploitation soared from 6,835 to 440,419 in just six months—a 6000% increase. Research shows that 1 in 8 victims of sexual extortion reported they have been threatened with a deepfake.
Automation and Chatbots
Automation and AI-powered chatbots have transformed how sextortion crimes are initiated. Predators can use AI messaging tools to start a conversation that may feel real to a teen, even before a human takes over.
AI enables criminals to perpetrate sextortion at a horrifying scale and speed. Victims are targeted by constant messages that can arrive at all hours. The AI bots do the work of catfishing—tricking teens into a fake relationship—and human predators take over once the stage is set.
How Parents Can Prevent Sextortion
Preventing sextortion starts with trust, connection, and emotional safety between parents/caregivers and teens. It’s impossible to protect teens from every evil or hurtful thing in the world. And for most parents, it’s not realistic to keep teens offline to avoid threats.
But parents can give their kids the tools to question the world around them and the confidence to ask for help when they need it. By normalizing conversations around sensitive topics, parents can help teens become safe and informed digital citizens in the AI era.
The approaches below focus on supporting teens to enhance their awareness, boundaries, and self-worth, so they can stay connected online while knowing they can come to you if something doesn’t feel right.
Talk Early and Often About Online Safety
One report showed that only 23% of minors who had a sextortion experience told their parents, guardians, or a trusted family member. That’s why it’s so important for parents to initiate open, nonjudgmental conversations. Talking about online dangers, including financial sextortion, catfishing, etc., helps teens recognize red flags and feel comfortable checking with you about them.
These conversations should be a regular part of checking in with your child, at an age-appropriate level. Over time, they will build your trust in online safety. NCMEC also offers various resources on sextortion that families can look at together, including various videos and discussion toolkits.
Ask Your Teen About Their Online Interactions
Here are a few questions that can open up conversations with a teenager about online safety:
- How do you usually feel after being on (insert a mobile app, messaging, gaming platform, or any other digital space they’re in)?
- What apps, games, or people online have made you feel uneasy or pressured?
- When have you felt like you need to act in a certain way to fit in or be accepted online?
- Has there ever been a time when you or a friend experienced something online that bothered you afterward?
- What would you do if something online felt scary?
Depending on how your child replies, you can seek more information and support, whether it’s reaching out to a mental health provider or researching parental controls that could work for your family.
Teach Boundaries Around Devices, Images, and Consent
Consent is just as necessary online as it is in real life. It is unacceptable, and often illegal, for someone to share a teen’s images, generate fake ones of them, or send them explicit media. Laws and protections are emerging through the Take It Down Act to protect people against a variety of online crimes, including sextortion, coercion, and tech-enabled sexual abuse.
Explain to your teen that once they share an image or information, even if they’re sending it to someone they trust, their control of it is lost. Reinforce that it’s okay to ignore a message, stop a conversation, or block someone, especially if it feels like they’re being pressured or manipulated, or if something just doesn’t feel right.
As a family, you can set device-use rules, such as no phones at dinner or no gaming for a set time each week. You can also use technology to keep technology at bay. Putting privacy settings in place can limit use and help protect minors.
Explain How Scams Work
Young people may feel that online scams “will never happen to me.” But any teen who’s online can be targeted.
Give them the information they need to recognize scams and know how to get help. Explain how common scams can be and how AI-generated imagery works. Knowledge is power.
Normalize Online Missteps
Remember, kids aren’t the only ones who get fooled by online criminals. Very intelligent and experienced adults have been scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars by clever manipulators. And AI is only making that easier.
Make it clear to your teen that anyone can be victimized. Let them know that you’ll work together to understand the evolving risks, avoid them when possible, and find ways to fix them if it happens.
Accept That Teen Curiosity Is Natural
Curiosity around relationships and sexuality is at its peak during the teen years. And sometimes online spaces are actually the safest—or only—places to explore. For example, The Trevor Project found that 68% of LGBTQ youth find online environments offer the most access to affirming spaces and communities.
Since most teens spend a lot of time online, and exploration is a natural part of a teen’s life, some of it is bound to happen online. Emphasize safety and proper online etiquette, without shaming or diminishing their need to explore.
Support Self-Worth Offline
Young people who feel valued and connected in real life are less likely to seek validation online. Encourage activities, friendships, and interests that naturally minimize their screen time.
Support them to identify and pursue activities that are meaningful to them. Whether that’s a fantasy book club or K-Pop dance classes, it will help them feel grounded in who they are and offer a community in which to build nourishing relationships.
Warning Signs Parents and Caregivers Should Watch For
It can be hard to tell when a teen is going through a challenging online experience, mainly because these instances often happen behind closed doors. However, subtle changes in their behavior, both online and offline, can hint that something is wrong.
Know2Protect outlines the following indicators of online sexual exploitation and abuse:
- Sudden changes in mood or emotional state
- Evasiveness about online activities, such as minimizing screens, hiding accounts, or hiding apps
- Withdrawing from real-world friends and becoming hyperfocused on the online environment
- Receiving random gifts in the mail from strangers
- Using inappropriate or sexual language you haven’t heard them use before
- Giving vague answers about their online behavior and actions
Poor mental health signs may include:
- Heightened anxiety, fear, or persistent worry
- Changes in sleep or appetite
- Seeming emotionally numb or flat
- Uncharacteristic irritability, anger, or emotional outbursts
- Physical symptoms, like stomachaches or other unexplained health challenges
- Noticeable drop in school performance or loss of interest in activities
If you have a gut feeling that something is off, don’t wait to see what happens. Check in with them to find out how they’re doing.
Ask open-ended questions, with no judgment, and do plenty of listening. If the signs are pointing toward a situation that sounds like sexual extortion, it’s time to take control and help your child.
What to Do When a Teen Is Being Sextorted
Sextortion can feel scary for parents as well as teens. Online threats are real, and so is the emotional distress your teen may be feeling.
Validate their emotions, assure them of your unconditional love and support, and take action to address the crime. Here are some of the logistical and emotional approaches to take.
Respond with Calm and Support
If you suspect or your child discloses sextortion, your response matters deeply. Stay calm; reassure them that they are not in trouble, and avoid blame.
A supportive response can reduce the strong sense of shame associated with this crime, and your teen will be more willing to open up and accept help. Watch how this family in Minnesota coped with sextortion.
Report the Threat
Know2Protect, a federal program to prevent and combat online sexual exploitation and abuse, recommends these ways to submit a report:
- Call the Know2Protect tipline at 833-591-KNOW (5669). All information received via the Tipline will be reviewed and referred to the appropriate government agency or local law enforcement for potential investigation.
- Submit a CyberTipline report with the National Centerfor Missing and Exploited Children.
- In an emergency, call 911.
The Know2Report website also gives tips on reporting an incident and explains what the process may look like.
Make Sure Mental Health Support Is Available
Even after the immediate threat has been stopped, ongoing mental health support is essential. Studies show that victims may experience loss of trust, episodes of panic, feelings of anger, sensations of powerlessness, fear, shame, stress, guilt, and sadness.
You don’t need to manage this alone. When a child experiences something as traumatic and scary as sextortion or another online threat, professional mental healthcare is strongly encouraged. Therapy can help teens process trauma, rebuild self-confidence, develop coping skills, and strengthen family connections.
When to Seek Help Right Away
Online harassment—including sextortion—can escalate into a mental health emergency. If a child or teen talks about wanting to die, expresses intense hopelessness, or shows sudden changes in behavior, immediate support is needed.
If there is an immediate risk to their own or other’s safety, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.
Immediate Inpatient Treatment at PrairieCare
PrairieCare provides immediate inpatient mental health treatment for qualifying patients 35 and younger. You can call 952-826-8424 at any time for a screening. Our team will help guide the next steps, whether that includes inpatient care or another level of care.
Seeking help early can make a meaningful difference. It can also remind young people that healing and a fulfilling future are possible.
Compassionate Mental Healthcare in Minnesota
At PrairieCare, we understand the complexities of living in the digital era and its effect on mental health. We provide compassionate, whole-person mental healthcare for people of all ages who are experiencing anxiety, depression, trauma, suicidal ideation, and more.
Our full continuum of care helps Minnesotans navigate mental health challenges, build resilience, and support long-term healing. Our services and programs include:
- Inpatient hospitalization for patients 35 and younger
- Residential treatment for youth
- Partial Hospitalization Programs (PHP) for all ages
- Intensive Outpatient Programs (IOP) for all ages
- Clinic services for all ages, including Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for qualifying adults
If you or your loved one is struggling with mental health challenges, our team can help. Call us today at 952-826-8475 or use the button below to request a complimentary care questionnaire.
