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Parents and children are being urged to take extra online safety precautions as police are receiving an increase in online child sexual exploitation reports.
More than 100 Victorian families have reported offenders coercing children, particularly teenage boys, into producing sexual images before taking money from them, according to Victorian Police and the Australian Federal Police.
The victims are commonly engaged through chat-based social media platforms with criminals often pretending to be a young girl, or someone of a similar age to the target.
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Offenders establish a relationship through giving compliments, before sending what they say are images of themselves and then they convince the victim into sending sexual images back.
Once they have the images, the offender threatens to on-share the content with friends and family of the victim while making demands for money, gift cards or cryptocurrency.
The images are still distributed even if the demands are met.
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Police believe the offenders are based internationally.
Detective Acting Inspector Carla McIntyre said urged parents, aunties, uncles and grandparents to have a "brave conversation" with the young people in their lives about these types of crimes.
"Let them know how it happens, that is frequently happening to children in Victoria… That it is not their fault, and it is absolutely nothing to feel about embarrassed about," McIntyre said.
"Ensure you create an environment where they feel they can come to you so they can be supported appropriately."
She said the psychological anguish could be really significant.
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"Please know that you are not alone, it is happening to other people and police can and will help you."
Anyone who has been involved in this type of crime or has any information is urged to contact police.
Access to tools, resources and advice can be found here.
Source: 9News
