Parents urged to inform children of the dangers of 'sextortion'
Parents are being encouraged to talk to their children about the dangers of ‘sextortion’ online.
Sergeant Dean Kerins, a Crime prevention Garda in Meath, is urging parents to show their children a new Interpol video to discourage them from interacting with people they don't know online.
Sextortion is becoming one of the fastest-rising crimes in Ireland.
It is defined as blackmail in which sexual information or images are used to extort sexual favours and/or money from the victim.
Ronan Hughes from Donaghmore took his own life in June 2015 he was tricked into sending to Iulian Enache (31) photographs which were shared with friends and posted online.
Enache pleaded guilty in a Romanian court last week to blackmailing the teen and producing/distributing indecent images of a child.
Sergeant Kerins has this advice for parents: "Supervise your child's laptop or mobile device, that's the first part. Be comfortable with talking and that's easier said than done because we know how tech-savy the young generation is."
"The video that we got from the Garda Cyber Crime unit shows you exactly how the whole scenario of the online sexual extortion takes place," he added.
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