Sextortion report of boys increase as IWF announces record amount of cases

The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a partner in the UK Safer Internet Centre, has reported a heartbreaking eightfold increase in the number of sextortion cases seen by the Hotline in a year, most of them (93%) via IWF’s and Childline’s reporting service, Report Remove.

In 2023, the IWF confirmed 176 reports of sexual extortion, or “sextortion”, that contained child sexual abuse material, compared with 21 cases received by the Hotline in 2022.

Teenage boys are being deliberately targeted by criminals in these types of crimes, as they appear in 91% of the reports. The victims are often blackmailed by criminals looking to extort money. Sixty percent of the reports involved 16 and 17-year-olds.

Report Remove can be used in confidence, and the IWF and NSPCC, which runs Childline, want children and parents to know that the service is available and are encouraging children to make use of the service.

Read the full article here.

Childline and the IWF’s Report Remove tool can be found on the Childline website.