Families warned of disturbing new criminal tactic in South Africa
Families are being warned of an increasing threat of teen sextortion in South Africa, a form of online blackmail that is targeting children and teenagers.
Jessica Shelver, founder of The Digital Bodyguard, said the issue is global, with warnings issued by organisations including Interpol and the FBI.
However, in an interview with CapeTalk, Shelver said an investigation involving a Soweto man accused of being part of an international sextortion scheme brought the threat particularly close to home.
In many cases, Shelver explained, the child may have willingly shared an image during what they believed was a private conversation.
However, an image can also be stolen from an account or captured without the child’s permission. The offender then threatens to distribute it unless the victim pays money, sends additional images or complies with other demands.
Importantly, she warned that children do not necessarily have to send an intimate image to become victims.
Criminals are increasingly able to use artificial intelligence to manipulate ordinary photographs, including images taken from social media.
The fact that an image is fake does not necessarily make the threat less damaging to a child.
Shelver said the shame and secrecy created by perpetrators can leave victims feeling isolated and desperate, even when the material being used against them is digitally manipulated.
“These kids, even when they are targeted by these syndicates and they say that they will share an image that is a deep fake, it doesn’t remove the shame and the secrecy that these perpetrators are trying to create to make these children feel isolated and alone,” she said.
For parents, one of the most concerning aspects is that they may have no idea their child is being targeted.
Shelver said perpetrators deliberately rely on teenagers being too frightened or embarrassed to tell a trusted adult once the blackmail begins.
Judgment-free conversations
She urged parents and schools to focus on education and communication, particularly because almost any messaging platform can be misused by predators.
“Any app with messaging features can be misused by predators,” she said, and added that parents should maintain open, judgment-free conversations with their children.
Children should know that they can approach their parents regardless of what has happened and that they will not automatically be punished, Shelver said.
This is particularly important in South Africa, where digital access has expanded rapidly but digital preparedness has not necessarily kept pace.
“In many cases, those children don’t have a safe and digitally prepared or aware adult at home that they can go to, which is when I think that the schools have a very important role to play,” she said.
Shelver also compared online safety education with the warnings parents traditionally give young children about strangers, such as not accepting sweets or getting into a stranger’s car.
“We gave our kids phones thinking that we were giving them access to the world, but instead we were giving the world access to them in their pockets 24 hours a day,” she said.
She advised parents to teach their children to report certain warning signs immediately.
These include someone threatening or pressuring them online, asking them to move from one app to another, demanding secrecy or threatening to share something about them publicly.
Shelver said families cannot rely on a once-off conversation about internet safety. Instead, regular discussions at home and in schools are needed to ensure children understand how these tactics work and know where to turn if they are targeted.
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