Deviant bribed girl, 12, for pics
AN AUSTRALIAN girl, 12, was lured into sending photos of herself in her underwear over Instagram in exchange for a $120 Amazon gift card.
News Corp can reveal the incident, which occurred in July, involved the pre-teen sending “mirror-selfies” in her underwear to a person connected with the @sexy_shoutout33 Instagram handle.
The predator had been sending private messages grooming the child and then offered the gift card in exchange for the revealing shots.
The girl obliged, buying a pair of shorts, sunglasses and a jumper with the gift card.
She sent three images in her underwear that were then posted on the @sexy_shoutout33 handle, which boasted it had 15,000 followers on a previous version of the account.
The predator then approached the girl again and said he would send another gift card for a higher $200 value in exchange for more pictures.
When the child’s mother found out what had occurred she demanded the images be removed, to which the predator responded: “pay me back my money”.
The girl’s mother, who has gone public with her family’s story to warn parents of the dangers of social media, deleted her daughter’s Instagram account and reported the incident to the Australian Federal Police.
“There were thousands of different young girls all in their underwear and in revealing positions … some laying down and spreading their legs,” the girl’s mother, who requested anonymity, told News Corp Australia of the @sexy_shoutout33 page which was accessed via approval only.
“He knew she was 12 and most of the girls were children or at least very young women.”
The AFP said this was the first time it had been alerted to this type of behaviour occurring to an Australian child but
THERE WERE THOUSANDS OF DIFFERENT YOUNG GIRLS ALL IN THEIR UNDERWEAR AND IN REVEALING POSITIONS
GIRL’S MOTHER
believes the issue is very much underreported and it is deeply concerned.
Instagram on Friday moved to suspend the account after News Corp alerted the social media giant to the incident.
“We are very sorry this happened,” a spokeswoman for Instagram said.
Children under the age of 13 are not permitted to have accounts on Instagram according to its rules of service.
The story comes in National Child Protection week which began yesterday and ahead of the Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation which will be opened by Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton in Brisbane today.