The stark truth about the Internet is that it can expose children to vile and degrading materials in the sanctuary of their homes and open the door to dangerous child sexual predators.

“Sextortion is a rapidly escalating threat,” according to FBI Director Christopher Wray. Sexual extortion, commonly known as sextortion, occurs when a predator coerces an individual into sending a sexually explicit image or video of themselves. Once in possession of this image, the offender threatens to release it publicly unless the victim continues to send similarly explicit images. Financial sextortion works similarly, with the offender threatening to release the nude images unless the victim sends them a certain amount of money.

While sextortion can happen to anyone of any age, what makes this cybercrime particularly abhorrent is that the perpetrators tend to target the most vulnerable among us: our children. Between October 2021 and March 2023, there have been over 13,000 reports of sextortion made to the FBI. In at least twenty of these cases, the child victim took their own life. Others have turned to self-harm. As staggering as these numbers are, they are likely underreported, as many victims choose not to report this crime out of fear or embarrassment.

Through social media, predators have increasingly easy access to all Americans, including minors. As a result, hundreds of minors are targeted every week in sextortion scams. Current laws fail to protect against sextortion adequately, and few laws provide incentives to big tech organizations to take steps to protect the users on their platforms.

The rising threat of sextortion is a complex issue that requires a complex solution. There are many different factors required to effectively combat this crime, but the most important of these factors is the creation of a federal law that criminalizes sextortion. The few pieces of legislation that have been enacted on the state and federal levels to protect against this cybercrime, while still a positive thing, are the equivalent of putting a Band-Aid on a bullet wound. The state laws are helpful to victims who live within that state, but there are many children victimized in states where sextortion is not criminalized. A federal law that holds social media sites responsible for reporting instances of sexual abuse on their platforms is a good thing, but it does nothing to deter sextortionists from targeting and victimizing the minors that use those platforms.

To deter cybercriminals from committing sextortion, the risks and repercussions of committing this offense must outweigh the potential benefits. A federal law that criminalizes sextortion would subject an offender to prosecution regardless of where they or their victim lives. The deterrent effect of such a federal law could be improved further with the implementation of harsh punishments and international cooperation to prosecute offenders who live outside of the United States.