Teachers warned to be on lookout for victims of sextortion in UK schools

Teachers in the UK are being asked to help spot signs their pupils are becoming victims of sextortion, with teenage boys thought to be among the most vulnerable groups.

The National Crime Agency has issued fresh guidance, saying criminal gangs – often based abroad – are using both real and fake images to blackmail their victims; sometimes going from initial contact to extortion within an hour.

“Sextortion is a callous crime. Perpetrators have no concern for victims or the lives that might be destroyed in the process. Their sole motivation is financial gain,” said James Babbage, the NCA’s director general for threats.

The crime involves people being forced into paying money, or meeting some other financial demand, under the threat of the release of intimate pictures. In some cases, the people behind it will trick the victim into creating or sending the material; in others, they will make digital mockups that look sufficiently real to carry a threat.

The news comes as the family of a 16-year-old boy who killed himself after becoming the victim of sextortion begged anyone who may be preyed upon in a similar way to speak to the people around them.

In an interview with the Guardian, relatives of Murray Dowey, from Dunblane in Scotland, described how their otherwise “happy boy” took his own life in his bedroom shortly after being targeted in a sextortion attempt on the night he died.

“We were 6 feet way when this was happening,” his mother said on Monday. “He just needed to come through to our bedroom. So it’s about putting the phone down, walking away, saying to someone else ‘this has happened, what the hell do I do?’ Murray didn’t do that and we lost him.”

The NCA’s Ceop child protection team said it was issuing the alert to hundreds of thousands of teachers in the UK after a “considerable increase in global cases” of sextortion.

“It gives advice about spotting the signs of this type of abuse, supporting young people and encouraging them to seek help. It also includes guidance to be disseminated to parents and carers on how to talk to their child about sextortion, and how to support them if they become a victim – aiming to take away the stigma surrounding the topic and, in turn, [take] power away from those who wish to harm them.”

The NCA said many of the criminal gangs behind the threats were based in west African countries and in south-east Asia.

Those targeted are advised never to pay – or, if they have paid something already, not to hand over anything further. They are advised to block and report the person contacting them, and to save anything sent as potential evidence.

The NCA said the US National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had reported a more than 100% increase in cases from 2022-23 – rising to 26,718 from 10,731. It added that while both sexes and all age groups were targeted, a large proportion of cases involved male victims aged between 14 and 18.

The security minister, Tom Tugendhat, said: “Sextortion destroys lives. It is often driven by highly sophisticated organised crime groups who exploit vulnerable people for profit.

“It’s vital that technology companies take responsibility for the safety of their users by implementing stronger safeguards on their platforms. I would urge parents to talk to their children about their use of social media. Even sites that many assume to be safe may pose a risk.”

• In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org