Click Here To Read The Full “Sextortion Report”

INTRODUCTION

THE SURVEY AND SURVEY GOALS

Thorn and the Crimes against Children Research Center of the University of New Hampshire conducted
an online survey of persons ages 18 to 25 who have been targets of threats to expose sexual images,
or “sextortion” (n=1631). Respondents were recruited mainly through ads on Facebook and asked to
complete anonymous surveys if they had been targets of sextortion. Our goal was to inform strategies to
reduce these incidents by:
• Educating the public and practitioners about sextortion;
• Improving mechanisms for reporting to websites, apps and other technology programs
that are being used for sextortion; promoting reporting to technology companies by
targets of sextortion and increasing effective responses to such reports;
• Equipping technology companies with more knowledge and information about how
their platforms are being used in sextortion so they can create preventive strategies to
combat the problem; and
• Encouraging help-seeking by targets of sextortion and providing them with resources.
Details about how the survey was conducted can be found at the end of this report.

SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS

Sextortion is defined as threats to expose a sexual image in order to make a person do something or for
other reasons, such as revenge or humiliation. Persons who completed the online survey are referred to
as “respondents” and those who threatened them as “perpetrators.”
The respondents in our sample were primarily female (83%) and teenagers (ages 18 and 19); about 40%
were in their early 20s.

The sextortion episodes they reported were diverse, but incidents broadly fell into two groups:
a) In the wake of face-to-face romantic or sexual relationships during which sexual images
were taken or shared, an aggrieved partner threatened to disseminate images either to
force reconciliation or to embarrass or humiliate the respondent.
b) A perpetrator who met a respondent online used a sexual image obtained from the
respondent or some other source to demand more images or sexual interactions.
There was notable diversity in these episodes, however. Some respondents were male; demands were
not always sexual in nature; and some perpetrators used elaborate deceptions to acquire images and
threaten respondents.

The more serious cases involved stalking and physical and sexual assault in addition to sextortion and
threats that lasted for 6 months or more.
Perpetrators carried out threats or otherwise harmed respondents in about 45% of cases, more frequently
in the face-to-face relationship group than in the online encounter group, and disseminated
sexual images in about 30% of cases.
The personal and psychological toll on respondents could be quite intense, with 24% seeing a medical or
mental health practitioner and 12% having to move as a result.

Shame, embarrassment and self-blame were common feelings that kept many respondents from seeking
help from friends and family or from reporting to technology companies that ran websites or apps used
for sextortion.

Only 1 in 5 respondents sought help from or reported the episode to a website or app. Respondents
were more likely to make reports when perpetrators posted images online. Of those who did not report
incidents, about half reported skepticism that a website or app could help. More than 40% of those who
did report to websites or apps said that the responses that they received were not helpful.

Complaints about unhelpful responses from technology companies included complicated documentation
requirements, unsympathetic attitudes, lengthy delays, lack of follow-up about what was being
done, and responses that did not fully address the problem.
Only 16% of respondents reported episodes to police, but police involvement was considerably more
common among those who disclosed sextortion incidents to family or friends, were victims of violence
or threats of violence in addition to the sextortion, or who saw a doctor or mental health professional as
a result of the incident.

Respondents described a variety of barriers to police assistance, including lack of criminal laws addressing
sextortion, lack of jurisdiction when perpetrators lived in other states or countries, and difficulties
proving the identity of perpetrators. Some reported being shamed or blamed by police and some who
were minors during incidents were threatened with prosecution for producing child pornography.

The report includes recommendations to:
• Increase public awareness of sextortion in order to promote disclosure and improve
support networks for victims
• Mobilize the education system to implement prevention curricula and provide support
resources
• Mobilize bystanders to stop perpetrators and support victims
• Encourage the technology industry to develop proactive interventions, improve the
experience of victims who report incidents, adopt practices and policies that prohibit
sextortion, and increase collaboration across the industry
• Increase law enforcement’s capacity to respond to sextortion cases and improve
sensitivity to victims
Many respondents described the sextortion they endured in detail and with feeling. They speak for
themselves in much of this report

All quotations in the report are from responses to the online survey. Some quotations have been altered
slightly for clarity and to delete possibly identifying details. With each quotation, we list the gender of
the respondent, their age at the time the threats began and whether they knew the perpetrator face-toface
or online.
Limitations of the survey
When reading this report, please keep in mind that the characteristics and experiences of respondents
reflect how recruitment was conducted. Nine out of 10 respondents were recruited by ads on Facebook,
and Facebook users may differ from other persons who have been threatened with exposure of sexual
images. Also, respondents were age 18 to 25. This survey does not reflect the experiences of persons
age 26 or older. Some respondents provided retrospective accounts of episodes that occurred when
they were minors, but if we had gathered more contemporaneous data from minors they might have
described such incidents differently. Overall, the respondents do not constitute a representative sample
of persons who have been the targets of sextortion, so our findings cannot be generalized beyond this
group. For example, we cannot say who is mostly targeted for sextortion and how it mostly occurs; we
can only report the experiences of those who responded to the survey.