Sextortion cases are on the rise—more than doubling to over 900 in the last year in the UK alone… and those are just the reported cases. Police believe there to be hundreds, if not thousands, more. They are checking through hundreds of background check reports to confirm.
Sextortion is not a novel idea. The word itself is, but not the crime. However, how perpetrators of that crime go about committing the act is relatively new.
Perverts love the Internet.
The Internet has enabled criminals, both professional and amateur, to prey on people wherever they are at any time. Children are the most vulnerable. They have no idea how slick an evil person can be or what they can do. Teens aren’t much better. They can be easily fooled by a predator who pretends to care about them. Even adults can be tricked just as well—falling prey to someone offering friendship, sex, or something else.
6 important steps for protecting your family from sextortion:
If you want to protect yourself and the people you love, then you should take the following measures.
- Educate yourself and your kids about online dangers.
- Set all privacy settings on social networking sites to the highest level.
- Keep kids’ computers in a central location in the house.
- Report any illicit behavior to law enforcement.
- Save all evidence of illegal behavior for the authorities.
- Review every app children download and use.
Run a personal background check for added safety.
These are just a few of the things you can do to keep you and your family safe from sexual predators. Another wise action you can take is to run a personal background check on anyone you or your loved ones don’t know.
If you’ve been contacted by someone shady—or not shady—you should run a thorough background check on that person. Sexual predators love to pretend that they are your friend. Before you even attempt to let that person get close to you, conducting an online background search should be your first priority.
Remember: it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
