What is cyber bullying, what is sextortion and what should you do if you are a victim?
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Cyber bullying (cyber bullying), Sextortion and cyber fraud have now entered our lives for good. And unfortunately it strikes more the youth who due to youth have faith in people and thoughtless thinking.
Protect your children and find out more about this form of cyberbullying of children, teens and even adults.
In 2017, a Pan-European campaign of Europol took place, with the slogan "Say No!" (Say No!) And aimed to raise awareness about sexual blackmail and coercion of victims, via the Internet which usually starts from Social Media.
The Greek police had then released a very informative video, a really great work that vividly describes the reality:
What is cyber bullying?
We all now know what bullying is. Unfortunately we have several such phenomena in Greece and we usually only learn those that have a bad effect. Cyberbullying is similar.
The term cyberbullying refers to the intimidation, threat, humiliation or harassment of children, adolescents and adolescents through the use of the internet, mobile phones or other digital technologies by their peers.
Cyberbullying involves the involvement of peers on both sides, or at least the involvement of an adult instigated by a minor against another minor. In case of adult involvement, the terms "cyber-harassment" or "cyber-stalking" are used. When there is sexual motivation then we talk about sexual blackmail (sextortion).
What is sextortion?
Online sexual coercion, called "sextortion", can be defined as:
The perpetrators, through the internet and mainly through Social Media or through Gaming networks, approach their victims, pretending to be peers of the same or the opposite sex.
After talking to them, through these networks they extract personal information, usually quite revealing. That is, after gaining the trust of the victims, they ask for photos or videos, ostensibly for their personal use or for professional purposes (eg modeling).
Demand is growing gradually, step by step, and the next step is to request additional photos with sensitive personal content (half-naked photos or videos). If the children give this content, then the criminals reveal their real purpose by blackmailing the victims with repeated financial or sexual demands.
In fact, having become online "friends", they know the victims' friends on social media, their relatives and a lot of other information about who you are and where they will share the revealing material if you do not give in to their demands.
The difference here with cyberbullying is the existence of an adult acting on their behalf. Here the blackmailer is older than the victim and poses as a peer. Of course, in Greek society there have been some incidents with minors on both sides, or even incidents with both sides being adults , but this is not the norm.
Watch below another video where sexual blackmail takes place:
Basic protection tips
The consequences of cyber blackmail are tragic for the victim, but mainly on a psychological level. It is important to communicate to all those we know how to avoid and safeguard such actions. And especially to our children.
In order not to fall victim to cyber blackmail or cyber fraud, always keep the following in mind:
- We do not give personal information to strangers
- We do not send photos and videos to strangers
- We do not start a conversation with strangers!
- We do not reveal parts of our body to strangers, who can videotape them and use them for blackmail!
- We do not upload photos and videos on Social Media, nor on sites we do not know
- We do not open files and links that are sent to us by strangers or that we have not requested
- We shield our profile on Social Media so that our data is accessible only to our acquaintances
- We do not respond to anonymous requests for friendship from people we do not know
- We cover or turn off the cameras of electronic devices (mobile phones, laptops), when we do not use them.
- We do not give, nor do we let revealing photos and videos be taken by our friends, our acquaintances, our partner.
What do we do if we have already fallen victim?
- We do not pay or give in to the blackmailer's requests, but we inform the authorities or some counseling service (such as The Child's Smile) that deals with minors and ask for advice
- We are not ashamed to reveal the content of the conversations and report the whole truth as things can get much worse.
Every day the authorities of cybercrime reveal new Sextortion circuits which are very organized and extract huge sums from blackmail. In fact, suicides by victims of Sextortion have even been recorded.
Do not defy danger, do not think that they will leave you alone. They will never do it! Report them to end your suffering. If you leave things to them they will take a very bad turn.
Dimitris hates Mondays...
