Last month I was fortunate to have been able to participate in the 2023 National Conference to Protect America’s Children in Washington DC, convened by the Beau Biden Foundation. Inspiring and also cautionary, I was struck by the commitment of child advocates to this work. So many who end up doing this work have survived their own trauma, and while we know it, their stories are still heartbreaking. Newcomers to the United States experience trauma in their home countries, on their journey, and when they get here. Everyone’s story is different, but so many have a story to tell. Every day we learn about ways that newcomers have been victimized because they are vulnerable in a new country. This is why the Sisters were victims’ advocates from the start of La Esperanza, because they knew the suffering and hardships that families had endured.

Children with limited English proficiency and cultural awareness are even more vulnerable to various forms of abuse. I would like to share with you some of the research from a session about sextortion that I found eye-opening. First, what is sextortion? According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), sextortion is a form of child sexual exploitation where children are threatened or blackmailed, most often with the possibility of sharing nude or sexual images of them, by a person who demands additional sexual content, sexual activity or money. This crime may happen when a child has shared an image, but they may also be targeted by an individual they met online through deceit, coercion, or some other method. In many cases, the blackmailers may have stolen or taken images of another person and they are communicating through a fake account.

During our conference session, data compiled by Thorn, a national nonprofit founded to combat online child sexual abuse, was shared. In 2021, compared with their non-Hispanic and non-Latino counterparts, Hispanic and Latino youth were more likely to self-report they had shared their own nudes, believe that their close friends were also sharing them, and acknowledge that they had nonconsensually reshared someone else’s content. Alarmingly, Hispanic and Latino youth who had experiences like these had risen to 31% of those completing the survey, compared to African American (19%), White (13%) and Other POC (8%) youth. Boys are a growing at-risk group, being extorted for money and continued sharing.

It is imperative that we share information and educate our Hispanic and Latino youth, as well as all youth, about sextortion, and what they can do about it. Great resources through NCMEC and Thorn can show youth – not everyone is doing this, they don’t have to respond to blackmail, and it’s possible to get help.

Find out more here:

https://www.missingkids.org/theissues/sextortion#whattodo
https://www.thorn.org/
https://nofiltr.org/

Jennifer Fuqua, PhD
Executive Director, La Esperanza