Sextortion is the act of forcing a person to engage in sexual intercourse, or forcing them to give money or objects, or producing sexually explicit material. Sextortion is characteriz! by a power imbalance between the perpetrator and the victim, which allows the victim to be forc! or coerc! into complying with sexual or financial demands. In a sense, it is the act of blackmailing a person with sexually explicit material obtain!, and this is a very serious crime. This is a complete attack on the person and also a violation of human rights.
Perpetrators often use their authority or the power imbalance between them and the victim, rather than physical violence or coercion, to
force children to engage in sexual intercourse or provide mon
ey or goods. In this way, they sexually abuse children. All over the world, child sexual abuse is consider! a serious crime with penalties.
Psychological pressure is usually express! by threatening to withhold certain benefits or to cause undesirable consequences if the desir! outcome is not provid!. The child, who is innocent and powerless against the perpetrator, may be forc! to do these things by threats.
The sexual element may include any unwant! sexual a lead genaration you won’t have to activity by the perpetrator, such as exposing private body parts, posing for sexually explicit photographs, or submitting to physical abuse. The perpetrator’s demands are malicious, abusive, or exploitative.
The sexual element can be reflect! in the methods us! to obtain goods, services or money. For example, perpetrators can access sexual content produc! by the victim and use it as blackmail to earn money. Violating the privacy of others is also a serious crime and human right, as well as a direct attack on people’s fre!om and dignity.
Sextortion can involve the victim distributing and threatening sexual content produc! by the victim online or to peers. This can lead to other negative outc
mes such as victimizing or harming a child through cyberbullying.
Criminal Offense?
The Lanzarote Convention criminalises forcing
a child to participate in the production of pornographic what other options are there to promote your content? images or causing them to participate in such displays (Article 21 (1)(ab)). Article ao lists 23 covers forcing children to produce child pornography. Engaging in sexual activity with a child is criminalis! where there is coercion, pressure or threat, where the abuser exploits the child’s trust or a vulnerable state, or where he or she has influence or authority over the child.
These items can be evaluat! to include sextortion elements.
Additionally, contracts criminalizing the production, provision, distribution or offering of child pornography include language that may include elements of sextortion.
For example:
Budapest Convention
Lanzarote Convention
What Can You Do?
Advocate for stronger legal frameworks, particularly those criminalizing Sextortion.
Advocate for better resources in law enforcement, such as existing capacity and tools to combat sextortion.
Collaborate and advocate with internet service providers to limit opportunities for perpetrators to engage in sextortion and the circulation of child sexual abuse material on the internet.