Cyber-predators, often based abroad, have become masters in the art of quickly convincing people to perform intimate acts in front of a web camera.
PIERRE LANTHIER, Gatineau police spokesman,
If it takes a cartoon of a young man twerking naked in front of video viewers to draw attention to the growing problem of online sextortion, well, Gatineau police are up to the challenge.
Sextortion is a story as old as the webcam itself: Boy meets girl online, eyes are batted, clothing is ditched, nude butts are twerked, recordings are made and one party threatens to make the other’s life a living hell unless payment is made.
All humour aside, it’s a serious problem, particularly among young people.
Stories are numerous of kids who’ve been snared after performing sex acts online and forced to pay off extortionists to avoid revelation of a moment of weakness on the web.
Gatineau police say they’ve had about 30 complaints of sextortion in 2014, with victims ranging in age from 16 to 58, and Det.-Lieut. Mathieu Guilbault says that number continues to grow.
“The cyber-predators, often based abroad, have become masters in the art of quickly convincing people to perform intimate acts in front of a web camera. This shortterm pleasure can turn quickly into a nightmare,” he said in a release.
In fact, despite plenty of information campaigns (not to mention a host of celebrity victims), online sextortion keeps growing, and police are pretty sure the reports to them merely represent the tip of the iceberg.
Gatineau police spokesman Pierre Lanthier says the force realized it had to do some original thinking to start “grabbing eyes,” as they say in social media.
“We thought one of the best ways to get the attention, especially among the ‘ados’ (adolescents), is via the same medium that can promote the problem,” Lanthier said.
So they contracted out for a snappy video to show “Emelie” dialing up “Samuel” online and getting susceptible Samuel hot and bothered to the point where he happily performs a Full Monty for her benefit.
The video was produced by Imagithèque, a Gatineau company. Police would not immediately say what it cost.
Onscreen it’s all pink hearts and smiley faces until Samuel receives an old-school extortion letter made with words cut from magazines. The video shows shocked parents and friends weeping. Meanwhile, Samuel’s striptease is shown circling the globe via the web.
“It’s a very serious issue, but the video presents it in an approachable way. You want the potential victims to watch,” says Lanthier.