AI's darkest turn: Supercharging child sextortion and self-harm
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The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's CyberTipline saw a 1,325% increase in reports involving generative AI from 2023 to 2024.
Why it matters: This dramatic increase shows how AI tools are being weaponized to accelerate and scale child exploitation tactics.
- It's also a sign of how fast gen AI is scaling overall.
Catch up quick: In late 2023, NCMEC noticed that blackmailing children was getting a lot faster, Fallon McNulty of NCMEC's exploited children division told Axios.
- Previously, interactions lasted days or even years. Now, financial sextortion (using nude images to coerce someone to send money) with a teen could be a matter of hours.
- And children who have never spoken to a scammer, sent a photo or shared personal information are being contacted with sexually explicit images created using AI and a profile picture. The scammer will say: "No one is going to believe this isn't you. You might as well do what I say." It looks scary real, McNulty says.
What we're hearing: Now, "the most alarming trend that we are seeing is reports related to sadistic online exploitations," McNulty said. Children are coerced to engage in self-harm, self-mutilation, suicide, mass violence and harm to animals. The motivation offenders have here is simply to gain fame in a group by causing chaos, she said.
- First interactions often occur on gaming platforms like Roblox or over social media and then move into a private messaging environment.
Educating parents and children about these dangers is key to protecting families, McNulty says. NCMIC resources include:
- Take It Down: A free, anonymous service to remove or stop the online sharing of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos taken of someone when they were under 18 years old.
- No Escape Room: An interactive experience for parents and guardians to see how fast this crime can happen.
- More resources can be found at NetSmartz, NCMEC's online child safety program.
