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What is Financially Motivated Sexual Extortion?
You may have recently heard of Financially Motivated Sexual Extortion (FMSE), sometimes referred to as 'sextortion'. This is when an offender threatens to release nude or semi-nude images and/or videos of a victim, unless they pay money or meet another financial demand, such as buying a pre-paid gift card. It is a form of child sexual abuse.
Victims of any age and gender can be targets however a large proportion of cases involce male victims aged 14-17.
It's importatn to remember that a child or young person is never to blame if they have been blackmailed online. Offenders will have tricked, groomed and/or manipulated them into sharing an image, or created diitcally manipulated images of them. The reality is that it could happen to anyone.
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What does FMSE look like?
If your child has been approached by an offender, they may tell you that they have been:
- contacted by an online account they do not know but appears to be another child or young person
- quickly engaged in a sexually explicit conversation. This may include the offender sharing indecent content first
- pressured into taking nude or semi-nude photos or videos. Or, they may have been blackmailed with images that have been digitally manipulated or AI-generated
- blackmailed into sending money or meeting another financial demand, such as buying a pre-paid gift card
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Talking to your child
Many young people have little understanding of what FMSE is and do not see themselves at risk. Very few are able to spot the warning signs or know where to report it to.
Therefore, you should include FMSE as a part of the open conversations you have with your child about relationships, sex and socialising online. By having regular, non-judgemental conversations with your child, you can create trust and support them to seek help should something happen online.
Here are four tips on how to talk to them:
- Chat regularly about their life online. Have ongoing conversations with them about their time online and continue to take an interest as they grow.
Use our #AskTheAwkward resource for conversation starters on how to speak to your child about meeting and talking to new people online, considering the benefits and potential harms.
Ask your child if they have seen our FMSE campaign on Snapchat, Instagram or Reddit. Use the campaign to discuss the signs of an FMSE attempt and where to report.
Let your child know about our Online Blackmail article (for 11-18s), which looks at what online blackmail is, spotting the warning signs and where to get help.
- Talk about where to find information about relationships and sex. Organisations like CEOP Education, Childline and Brook have age-appropriate advice on topics such as sexual communications and image sharing.
- Review privacy settings. Discuss the importance of using privacy settings on their accounts to restrict who can contact them. Read our parent and carers advice on how to talk to your child about their privacy settings.
- Make sure they know where to go for support: let them know that they can come to you with any concerns and won’t be judged. Make them aware of other trusted adults or sources of support, if they feel they can’t talk to you, such as Childline.
FMSE can have an impact on a victim’s mental health. Talk to your child about the local and national mental health support services available to them, such as YoungMinds.
