Family I.T. Guy Ben Gillenwater believes it’s safer for children if their phone cameras are turned off in the settings.
“An internet-connected camera is very dangerous,” Gillenwater explained. “It is the primary tool that predators use to extort children on the internet. This is a global situation.”
This version of blackmail, or sextortion, is one of the fastest-growing cybercrimes used by predators, self-harm groups and criminal networks. These predators use the camera to blackmail children by developing relationships with them and asking them for photos.
Pediatrician Dr. Hina Talib explained how it works: “Perpetrators, who might pretend to be near the child’s age, reach out with false promises of friendship or romance. The typical trap involves building trust with the child or teen, then sending an explicit photo and asking for one in return. When the teen agrees, the predator asks for more images or videos or demands money. Threats to ‘out’ them by posting what they’ve already sent — so that everyone can see it, parents included — can terrify kids into silence and cooperation.”
“It causes many suicides per year. It’s something that you want to avoid,” Gillenwater said. “And the idea is that you having your camera be internet connected is dangerous.”
Related: Apple Takes Steps to Improve Child Safety
For children who have an interest in photography, their parents can give them a camera that is not attached to other devices. If parents choose to leave their child’s phone camera turned on, they can implement a rule that devices never enter private areas of their home and are only used in common spaces like the kitchen and living room.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) recently said that it has seen a dramatic rise in sextortion of children. In most cases, the predator blackmails children for money. Teenage boys are the most common targets.
The FBI said in 2024, “These crimes can lead victims to self-harm and have led to suicide. From October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations received over 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors. The sextortion involved at least 12,600 victims—primarily boys—and led to at least 20 suicides.”
Child victims can request help from NCMEC at www.missingkids.org/gethelpnow/isyourexplicitcontentoutthere and https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/. Adult victims can request help via https://stopncii.org/. Anyone may also file a cybercrime report through the FBI’s IC3 site.
Gillenwater’s advice shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s not just creeps in white vans that parents need to watch out for — it’s online predators through any medium of social channels.
Read Next: Sextortion Scams ‘Exploding’ Online: What Parents Need To Know
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