Pediatria pre prax 2/2016

A brief introduction to the issue of online blackmail of Czech children with a focus on sextortion

The online extortion and/or sextortion of children is a dangerous phenomenon related to the use of internet services (social networks, etc.). There is, as estimated, about 6–8% of the child population in the Czech Republic affected by it. In the majority of serious cases of extortion the process evolves through an elementary succession of communication advances that makes it possible to recognize the ongoing interchange as dangerous. On the basis of a detailed analysis of 15 serious cases of online extortion, a model has been developed, according to which the internet offenders proceed in their practice. The model is, for clarity sake, divided into several mutually interconnected stages, through which the attack proceeds. The individual stages are elaborated on, using authentic evidence.

Keywords: sextortion, extortion, humiliation, child abuse, model of sextortion, phases of exortion, sexting, cybergrooming