Inside the bold B.C. campaign to crush child sextortion

Georgie Smyth · CBC News

· Posted: May 04, 2024 1:42 PM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago

Leo MacIsaac, a 6th grader in Vancouver, is like any other kid his age. When he gets home from school, he usually goes online and sends funny videos or pictures of his pets to friends on chat app Discord. 

He had no idea Discord was how some extortionists subtly targeted kids like him online, until he sat through a workshop at his school by B.C. group Children of the Street.

Predators often start by messaging kids about things like video games or something else seemingly harmless, before luring them into a private chat or onto another platform, presenter Serina Tarr told students at Laura Secord Elementary School, in March. 

"That was a little bit surprising. I thought it would be a little bit more obvious, " said MacIsaac. 

But it's not always obvious when a child is being targeted, said Jen Graham, the director of Children of the Street, which could be why Canada is seeing such a significant spike in cases.

WATCH | Educating kids about the risk of online sexual exploitation: 

In the last 18 months, more than 6,000 reports of sexual extortion, sometimes called sextortion, have been reported through the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (CCCP). In the last six months, reports increased by 150 per cent. 

It amounts to about 10 reports a day, according to Stephen Sauer, the director of national tipline, Cybertip.ca, which is headquartered in Winnipeg.

Sadly, not all victims get the support they need and some cases still go underreported. In Canada and the U.S., too many kids and young adults have taken their own lives after becoming victims to criminals online, even from the other side of the world, advocates say. 

Finding red flags

Graham said those stories motivated her team to get bolder in their education and outreach.

The workshops, which are available for B.C. students, build on real interactions between predators and victims on platforms like Instagram and Snapchat, the two apps most commonly associated with exploitation reports. The workshops show kids step by step how to spot red flags from the beginning.

Warning signs like a stranger inundating someone online with compliments, what the group calls "love-bombing," or a random person claiming to have a lot in common with the person they're talking to, a kind of fake compatibility, are some red flags the group urges young people to monitor. 

"Anything to make you feel really good about yourself or feel good about messaging them," is what blackmailers want, said facilitator Tatyana Davies during a workshop.

Davies said it's crucial kids don't fall into the trap of trusting strangers online, especially when interactions show red flags. At the end of the day, she said, sexual images and money is all online predators want.

Ultimately Graham said it's hard to measure how well their prevention methods will work against the threat of online sextortion — other than to hope for a decrease in the number of reports that come through the CCCP. 

Teen boys at risk 

And then there's the cheeky posters pasted around Vancouver, meant to grab the attention of young people.

"Don't put your d*ck here" they read, next to a picture of a cheese grater or beehive. "Don't put it in a DM [direct message]," is the kicker.  

"We know humour is a good way in with teen boys, it's a way to connect to a really serious issue. It's a good entry point," said Jen Graham. 

Teen boys are by far the largest victim group in Canada. It's a staggering statistic but 90 per cent of all sextortion incidents reported to the national tiptline involve boys aged between 15 and 17.

For that cohort, exploiters are mostly after money and will pressure a boy into sharing an intimate image after connecting with them online. Once a victim realizes they've been exploited, the relationship dynamics change significantly, said Stephen Sauer. 

"The individuals who are doing this will often become very, very aggressive," he said. 

His organization, which helps victims take down material, also coaches distraught young people in crisis about contacting the police. But most of all, they want kids to know they don't have to comply with anyone's demands.

It might be tempting for victims of extortion to want to delete messages they've had with perpetrators but that's the kind of evidence that could also be used by police, say presenters Tarr and Davies.

Back in Vancouver, MacIsaac says he feels safer online after going through the steps that extortionists will take to lure young people. 

His Discord group with his friends has over 30 people in it — but they're pretty strict about who gets let in, he says, and he's not interested in talking to people he doesn't know. 

It's a relief for his mom, Chantelle MacIsaac, who admits it's scary being a parent when it's hard to know everything kids are being exposed to online.

She says she has an open door policy in her house, literally. Leo has to have to have the door open when he's online so she can hear what's going on. But she also thinks opens conversations are the best way to crush Canada's disturbing rise of exploitation online.  

"The more that kids know, the less power it gives to the online predators."