Sextortion often begins with a perpetrator contacting a victim through social media platforms, dating websites, or messaging applications. Victims share their explicit content, allowing the ...perpetrator to gain control by threatening to expose this material unless demands are met. The limited extant literature on this topic highlights a vast demographic of victims and serious consequences following victimisation. Given its interactional nature, the current, exploratory study examines psychological factors leading to sextortion. Specifically, personality traits, emotional factors, and sexual needs are investigated as predictors of victimisation. These psychological factors have been much neglected in the literature, despite having strong associations with sextortion-related online behaviours. Utilising data from 89 victims (73 males, 16 females; Mage = 24.73) and 212 non-victims (42 males, 170 females; Mage = 28.55) collected via an online survey, a series of t-tests and regressions were conducted to examine the objectives. Results showed that conscientiousness and emotionality were negatively predictive, and attachment-related anxiety and need for sex were positively predictive of victimisation. A comprehensive model containing these predictors correctly classified 76.1% of cases, indicating potential to measure psychological vulnerability to financial sextortion. With the majority of respondent victims being adult men experiencing financial demands, the discussion details the implications of this research on this group in particular, as well as study limitations.
•Identifies who is most vulnerable to sextortion cybercrime.•Personality traits create risk of sextortion victimisation.•Attachment-related anxiety positively predictive of sextortion.•Sexting and need for sex linked to sextortion risk.•Model using psychological predictors of sextortion risk.
Sextortion is the threatened dissemination of explicit, intimate, or embarrassing images of a sexual nature without consent, usually for the purpose of procuring additional images, sexual acts, ...money, or something else. Despite increased public interest in this behavior, it has yet to be empirically examined among adolescents. The current study fills this gap by exploring the prevalence of sextortion behaviors among a nationally representative sample of 5,568 U.S. middle and high school students. Approximately 5% of students reported that they had been the victim of sextortion, while about 3% admitted to threatening others who had shared an image with them in confidence. Males and nonheterosexual youth were more likely to be targeted, and males were more likely to target others. Moreover, youth who threatened others with sextortion were more likely to have been victims themselves. Implications for future research, as well as the preventive role that youth-serving professionals can play, are discussed.
Research on the sexting experiences of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (LGB) youth is limited. Prior work often does not measure problematic forms of sexting, such as the unauthorized forwarding of sexting ...images. Furthermore, previous studies did typically not include contextual variables that could provide a better understanding of the behaviors. This study aims to address these critical gaps in the literature by including a wide variety of measures on sexting, including problematic forms of sexting. The study reports on the results of a weighted sample of 1306 LGB and heterosexual respondents (n = 647 boys; 49.5% boys; n = 659 girls; 50.5%) with an average age of 15 years old (M = 14.97; SD = 1.97) who completed a module on sexting as part of a larger survey on their media use. We compared the engagement in sexting between LGB and heterosexual respondents. The results show that LGB adolescents were more likely to have ever created, sent or received a sexting image than heterosexual adolescents. LGB participants were also more likely to have ever experienced pressure from someone else to send a sexting message. Girls had also more often experienced pressure to engage in sexting than boys. There were no significant differences for gender or sexual orientation for the forwarding or seeing forwarded sexting images. This study highlights that adolescent girls and LGB adolescents are at a higher risk to experience online sexual pressure. Sexting education should include components that discuss bystander behavior and how to cope with sexting pressure.
•This study compares sexting behaviors between LGB and heterosexual youth.•LGB adolescents are more likely to have ever taken, sent or received a sexting image.•Girls and LGB youth are at a higher risk to have experienced sexting pressure.•Priority areas for education are addressing bystander behaviors and sexting under pressure.
The growing threat of sexual extortion (”sextortion”) has garnered significant attention in the news and by law enforcement agencies around the world. Foundational knowledge of prevalence and risk ...factors, however, is still nascent. The present study surveyed 16,693 respondents, distributed equally across 10 different countries, to assess prevalence of victimization and perpetration of threatening to disseminate intimate images. Weighted by gender, age, region, and population, 14.5% of respondents indicated at least one experience of victimization, while 4.8% of respondents indicated perpetration of the same. Demographic risk factors for perpetration and victimization were also assessed. Consistent with findings from other studies, men (15.7%) were 1.17 times more likely to report being victimized compared to women (13.2%), and 1.43 times more likely to report perpetration. LGBTQ+ respondents were 2.07 times more likely to report victimization compared to non-LGBTQ+ respondents, and 2.51 times more likely to report offending behaviors. Age was significantly associated, with younger participants more likely to report both victimization and perpetration experiences. The most common type of perpetrator, as reported by victims, was a former or current partner. Despite the strong likelihood of under-reporting given the topic area, the study found that experiencing threats to distribute intimate content is a relatively commonplace occurrence, impacting 1 in 7 adults. Implications for potential mitigation are discussed.
•There is a dearth of literature on the prevalence of sextortion.•In a survey of 16,693 respondents, 14.5% reported victimization and 4.8% reported perpetration.•LGBTQ+, men, and younger respondents were more likely to report both victimization and perpetration.•Sextortion was least prevalent in the European countries surveyed.•Perpetrators of sextortion are most often current or former intimate partners.
Sextortion, the threatened dissemination of explicit, intimate, or embarrassing images of a sexual nature without consent, is an understudied problem. Despite a recent increase in reported incidents ...among adolescents in the United States, little is known about the nature and extent of sextortion among this population. The current research explores sextortion behaviors among a national sample of 4972 middle and high school students (mean age = 14.5) for the purpose of illuminating how many youth are targeted, and understanding various characteristics of the incident (including who was involved, what offenders wanted, what offenders did, and who targets told). About 5% of youth reported that they were victims of sextortion, primarily by people they knew. Many of those targeted did not disclose the incident to adults. Implications for future research and the law are discussed.
En los últimos años ha adquirido mayor visibilidad en las agendas públicas de los países el reclamo efectuado por ciertos sectores de la sociedad civil –en particular los movimientos de mujeres y el ...colectivo LGBTIQ+– respecto de la necesidad de rever las lógicas bajo las cuales se suceden las relaciones sexuales, así como el lugar que se reserva al consentimiento y la autonomía personal, en particular de las mujeres. La amplia difusión de los aforismos “No es no”, “Me Too”, “Sólo sí es sí. RESPECT”, “Yo te creo, hermana” son una muestra cabal. En el presente trabajo se pasará revista a prácticas sexuales como la pornovenganza, la sextortion y el stealthing, con particular énfasis en este último, que irrumpen en este escenario actual de demandas y que exigen repensar los límites de las respuestas que desde el derecho históricamente se han dispensado frente a casos de violencias sexuales.
The first aim of this study was to analyze the prevalence and frequency of different forms of online sexual victimization and risks among sexual minorities, including sexting, sexual orientation- and ...gender-based victimization, unwanted sexual attention, sextortion, and revenge porn. The second aim was to examine whether online sexual victimization and risks mediate the relationship between being a sexual minority and mental health outcomes, including depression and anxiety. The sample was composed of 1779 adolescents (50.9% girls) between 12 and 18 years old (mean age = 13.92, SD = 1.27), and 146 of them (8.2%) were sexual minorities (specifically, bisexual, homosexual, pansexual, asexual, or queer adolescents). About 17.3% of sexual minority adolescents have sent a sext. Four out of ten adolescents (41.1%) had experienced online sexual orientation discrimination and 28.4% gender-based victimization. More than forty percent (45.2%) experienced unwanted sexual attention, 9% were victims of sextortion, and 5.5% had been targets of revenge porn. Sexting, online sexual orientation victimization and gender-based victimization, and unwanted sexual attention partially mediated the relationship between being a sexual minority and mental health outcomes (i.e., depression and anxiety). More prevention programs aimed to reduce online sexual victimization and risks for sexual minorities are needed.
•Sexual minorities are frequently sexually victimized online.•Forty percent of sexual minorities reported online sexual orientation victimization.•One in four sexual minority adolescents experienced online gender-based victimization.•Online sexual victimization is related to poorer mental health outcomes among sexual minorities.
Technology-facilitated sexual violence (TFSV) encompasses various harmful online behaviors, such as online gender-based hate speech, online gender-based violence, digital sexual harassment, ...image-based sexual abuse, and online sexual coercion. This study aimed to examine how moral disengagement varies based on the type of TFSV, and the factors influencing moral disengagement in TFSV situations. Specifically, the impact of participant gender, participant sexist beliefs, and victim–perpetrator gender was assessed. A total of 2950 respondents (70.3% women) between the ages of 16 and 79 (M = 26.33, SD = 10.09) participated in a vignette study in which the variables of interest (TFSV type, victim-perpetrator gender) were manipulated. The findings revealed that moral disengagement levels varied across different types of TFSV, with higher levels observed in cases of online gender-based hate speech, followed by online gender-based violence, digital sexual harassment, image-based sexual abuse, and online sexual coercion. Moreover, the results indicated that sexist beliefs, participant gender (i.e., being a man), and situations involving a woman perpetrator and a man victim were associated with greater moral disengagement. Additionally, it was found that sexist beliefs play a more significant role in moral disengagement for women than for men. This information, which emphasizes the role of gender socialization and sexist beliefs in the justification and normalization of this type of violence, is important for the development of prevention programs.
•Moral disengagement varies depending on the type of TFSV.•Situations in which the perpetrator is a woman and the victim is a man receive more justification than their counterparts.•Men justify TFSV to a greater extent than do women.•Sexist beliefs are associated with greater justification for violence, especially for women.
Online sextortion is an organised form of blackmail which can have a serious financial and traumatic impact on its victims. Responding to a dearth of evidence about this crime, this study analyses ...patterns within a large dataset of over 23,000 anonymous victim reports, collected via an online support community. Using common responses within these reports, this study identifies the most typical patterns of offending, including the profile assumed by offenders, the platforms through which the offence is initiated and enabled, payment methods and amounts demanded, and the national origins of most offences. Analysis shows that the mix of social media and dating platforms being used to approach and communicate with victims is changing over time, but the tactics employed by offenders are remarkably standardised. Payment demands involved in the crime were previously centralised in a few key service providers, but are increasingly diversifying. The variety of platforms involved in online sextortion points towards enforcement and safeguarding challenges, motivating an analysis of common risk factors that can inform the design of broadly-applicable countermeasures.
