CLEVELAND, Ohio — Parents, law enforcement, and social media platforms are scrambling to stay ahead of a growing trend News 5 has been tracking now for years.
Sadly, it's one that can quickly turn deadly.
The number of financial sextortion cases continues to climb at an alarming rate following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Those targeted, like Tamia Woods' son, James, are coerced into sending intimate images of themselves.
RELATED: Family of teen victim applauds Ohio lawmakers’ effort to make sextortion a crime
The criminals then use embarrassment and shame, along with the threat of the images being sent to family and friends, to extort money.
Tamia told us James received 200 messages on Instagram, and just 20 hours later, he died by suicide.
"It just truly broke our hearts, and our hearts will forever be broken," said Tamia.
The Streetsboro teen was among the nearly 27,000 cases of financial extortion reported just last year, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Statistics show boys appear to be the most targeted, with the platform of choice for criminals being Instagram.
Meta, the parent company of Instagram, dropped a video into the feeds of millions of teens across the U.S. on Tuesday.
It explains what sextortion is, how to spot it early, and what to do if you become a victim.
Good Morning Cleveland anchor Mike Brookbank spoke with Ravi Sinha, the head of Child Safety Policy at Meta, about the role parents play.
Sinha said parents should be on the lookout for somebody they don’t know reaching out to their teen aggressively and encouraging them to send intimate images.
"Have a sense as to what your teen is doing both in the real world and online and make sure that you're creating a space in which your teen feels comfortable coming to talk to you about what's going on in their lives," said Sinha.
Sinha said this move is Meta’s continued effort to make sure teens have age-appropriate experiences online.
“And so as a big part of that, we really are trying to lead in the area of making sure that people understand what Sextortion is and, and have protections built into the product that we can help protect people, said Sinha.
If parents need help approaching and talking with their teens, there are resources available at Instagram.com/preventsextortion.
