Free mental health support launched for sextortion victims as cases reach record high

Online safety organisation Netsafe says sextortion is at its highest ever level in Aotearoa, and the number of people falling victim to the online harm is rising rapidly.

Sextortion is a form of blackmail in which someone is tricked or pressured into sharing intimate images, then threatened with having them posted online unless they pay a ransom or send more.

Netsafe said cases have gone up nearly 25 percent in the last year, but many aren’t reported.

From today, they have partnered with counselling service Ignite, to offer free support to victims.

For many people what may have begun as a friend request online, or a message from a friendly stranger, quickly spiralled into something much more sinister.

Netsafe CEO Brent Carey said sextortion is a rapidly growing issue, with nearly one in ten people having reported it to them.

“Netsafe’s been getting on average 50 sextortion reports a week, and it’s growing. And we’ve taken more than 16,000 reports of this harm type.”

While the harmful practice is rapidly making its way to our shores, Carey said it is a global phenomenon.

All the way in Michigan, John DeMay’s 17-year-old son Jordan fell victim to one of those scams, and in 2022 and took his own life hours after a sextortion scam rapidly escalated.

“He just checked his phone, saw the Instagram message come in, accepted the friend request and started having the conversation with her. He was having this conversation casually with Dani Roberts, and that conversation started to turn a little bit sexual.

“She ended up sending him nude images of herself and enticed him to do the same, and he eventually caved.”

DeMay said that within about 15 minutes “the switch was flipped”, with Roberts demanding money, and threatening to send his nude image to everyone he knew.

But Roberts wasn’t a teenage girl like she claimed, Jordan was talking to an organised crime group in Nigeria.

In 2023, a Christchurch teen took his own life just hours after he was sexually extorted online, in very similar circumstances.

Despite his reluctance, he exchanged intimate images with a woman on Facebook, who he thought was from Timaru.

After doing so, she demanded he pay $5000 or she would share the images to his contacts.

In reality, she didn’t exist, and the account was also traced back to West Africa.

Carey said people in Aotearoa are being targeted from all over the world.

“In terms of blackmail and extortion, we know that there’s organised crime targeting New Zealanders, and they’re using social media accounts to socially engineer us and target us.

“But we also know [it’s happening] through school communities, we know that there also can be a personal relationship to sextortion, and some people know who the perpetrator of this is.”

While victims can report the online harm to Netsafe, Carey said they have been lacking services which provide ongoing support.

Today, Netsafe, alongside counselling service Ignite, have begun offering three free counselling sessions for people affected by sextortion.

Director of Ignite, Sarina Finucane said the stigma around sextortion often makes it difficult for victims to find the help they need.

“Sometimes going locally for support can be a real challenge. There can be stigma and embarrassment attached to this. You might go into your GP to access some primary mental health support, and the GP may not even recognise what image-based abuse or sextortion is.

“This is why it’s been really important to have that recovery pathway direct from Netsafe and to support providers that understand the impact of online harm.”

Finucane said that mental health services needed to keep up with the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

“I think there’s actually a real need for mental health services in New Zealand to meet the need of the modern problems that are arising for Kiwis. Sextortion is a huge issue, online harm is a huge issue, not just for young people, as we tend to think, but for a lot of New Zealanders and adults as well experiencing this.”

Carey said they had seen the issue affecting people as young as eight, and as old at 80.

While counselling is key for victims to move forward, Carey said much more needs to be done to tackle the issue, starting with a review to the Harmful Digital Communications Act.

“We want to keep sextortion a live issue to try and tackle it. It’s going to take banks, it’s going to take platforms, civil society. therapy providers all working together to tackle this. We’d love for the government to review the act. That’s a bottom line, and we also want to make sure that it’s staying relevant for new harms.”

Carey and Finucane said they hope to expand the pilot programme to offer more counselling sessions in the future.

Anyone who has been a victim of sextortion should report the offending to police on 105 (non-emergency) or 111 (emergency), and Netsafe by calling on 0508 NETSAFE (0508 638 723), or reporting online at netsafe.org.nz/report.

If it is an emergency and you feel like you or someone else is at risk, call 111.