NAKED

new form of online sexual exploitation using blackmail to get naked photos or sexually explicit videos of a child.

Sextortion can also be used to get money or as a way to get children to have sex with an adult, according to the center.

It’s a crime birthed from social media and the Internet.

And it’s one law-enforcement agencies say they’re seeing more often.

Osceola deputies started investigating Williams’ case earlier this month when detectives from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office in San Leandro, Calif., contacted them about a case they were working that might be tied to a Kissimmee man.

The detectives said three girls — two 11-year-olds and a 10-year-old — were allegedly being sexually extorted by someone they believed to be a 14-year-old girl from Texas, according to the report.

The girls said they met the person on Kik and became friends. Two of the girls said they sent naked photos after being asked, the report states.

Once they sent the photos, the girl, known as “Emily,” continued to ask for more, the report states. When the girls refused, Emily would get mad and threaten to expose them by putting their naked photos on the Internet.

The girls got suspicious and told their parents, who in turn told the California authorities.

Growing trend

John Shehan, vice president of the Exploited Children Division at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said that type of sextortion is a relatively new crime that the center started tracking in October 2013.

A little more than a year later, the center’s tip line had received 310 calls about possible “sextortion” cases across the country, he said.

About 76 percent of those tips referenced female victims ranging in age from 9 to 17 years old, and most said the sextortion was happening through messaging applications on cellphones and tablets, according to the center.

The most common objective by the person doing the exploiting, the center says, was to get more sexually explicit images or video.

“It’s just another level of perversion of how to get child pornography,” said Nestor Yglesias, spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “It’s a way to get additional child pornography produced by the child.”

Yglesias said ICE, which frequently investigates sex crimes, has seen an increase in sextortion as technology evolves, with new applications and social-media sites.

And the biggest question the crime raises, he said, is: “Where is the supervision?”

“Parents have to talk to their children about this growing trend,” he said. “… whether it’s someone your age or not, it’s inappropriate to take those type of photos.”

Further investigation by the California detectives led the Osceola deputies to the screen name created with Williams’ email and used by an IP address at his home on Mairi Court in Kissimmee, the report states.

Deputies then met with Williams at his home, where he acknowledged talking with the girls from California — along with at least 100 others.

Deputies searched two cellphones and a tablet and found numerous sexually explicit images and videos of children, the report states.

Williams was released Thursday from the Osceola County Jail on bail.

To report suspected sextortion, call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 800-843-5678 or report online at missingkids.com/ cybertipline.