Sextortion Should Be A Capital Offense

Recently someone came to me and asked for help after being a victim of sextortion. What is sextortion? Simply put, it is when someone coerces you into sending naked pictures of yourself and then tries to get you to pay money to keep from sending those pictures to your friends and family. Often times a bad actor will pose as a teenage girl and offer to exchange nude pictures with teenage boys. About the best advice I can give is just don't do it. That is often easier said than done though.

The unfortunate thing and why I think it should be a capital offense is that a large number of teenage boys have ended up committing suicide over sextortion schemes. Parents involved in these tragedies from different states have lobbied their legislatures to make the crime a felony, which it is as of today in Utah. Personally I don't think it is enough of a deterrent. Due to all of the lives that have been lost, I think we should be able to up the punishment so that a criminal that has caused a suicide should suffer the same punishment, death.

Now I know I am a bit harsh and many will point out that death-row inmates cost more than someone doing life in prison. I understand that. I also know that others will be upset at me for being so willing to take the life of another person. I only wish the criminals extorting money from teenage boys worried as much about the effects of their actions.

Unfortunately the reality is that with the ubiquity of the Internet, most bad actors dabbling in sextortion don't reside in the United States. When I wrote about this same subject half a decade ago, the e-mail started in Panama. I know there are other documented cases with criminals in various African countries. That means bad actors have some level of protection from prosecution in the United States.

So what can we do about sextortion? The first thing you can do is report it to the authorities. This includes local police and the FBI. The FBI's website where you can file a complaint is www.ic3.gov. You can also go to StopNCII.org to see about removing those images so they don't continue to propagate. Be forewarned that they have a 90% success rate. That is nowhere near the 100% we all hope for. Finally be prepared for all your friends and family to receive those embarrassing pictures. About the best you can do is respond with an apology when someone tells you they have been on the receiving end of those images.

To finish the story I started this post with, I advised the person not to pay the extortion fee. Once someone realizes you will pay, it only opens you up to more sextortion attempts later. A day later a number of friends and family received those compromising images. Everyone that received them reached out to the victim, showed support, and expressed concern. Nobody judged. We all have things in our lives we would like to keep private and don't want shared with the world which is why I never answer my phone in the bathroom. Friends and family understand that and won't rake you over the coals for a mistake you have made.