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The Shocking Reality of Sextortion and the Battle Against Digital Shame

Nina Jane Patel
3 min readMay 3, 2024

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I was asked to speak about the recent alert from the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) #CEOP Education team regarding the alarming rise of sextortion. Sextortion involves people being forced into paying money or meeting another financial demand, after an offender has threatened to release nude or semi-nude photos of them. This could be a real photo taken by the victim, or a fake image created of them by the offender.

Financially motivated sexual extortion: an alert for education settings

Globally there has been an increase in reports of children and young people being victims of financially motivated sexual extortion, often referred to in the media as ‘sextortion’.

The National Crime Agency’s CEOP Education have issued an alert to education settings across the UK in response to this threat. The alert helps professionals to:

  • recognise and understand financially motivated sexual extortion
  • raise awareness and help seeking behaviours amongst children and young people
  • give suitable messaging and support to parents and carers
  • support victims of financially motivated sexual extortion

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Nina Jane Patel

Driven by the values of innovation, agency, and empowerment, I strive to pioneer positive change in the ever-evolving landscape of emerging technologies.