Sexting & Sextortion Scams (1 Viewer)

[GeauxWhoDats]

CNN) — About two weeks after his oldest son’s funeral, South Carolina state house Rep. Brandon Guffey says he received a private Instagram message with a laughing emoji.

Gavin Guffey, 17, had fatally shot himself in a bathroom in July 2022, and the grieving father was searching for clues on what led to his suicide.

Then Guffey and his younger son began to get messages demanding money in exchange for nude photos of his late son. Anyone on Gavin’s Instagram followers list who had the last name Guffey got similar messages, his father says.

The family began piecing together Gavin’s last moments and discovered he had encountered a scammer on Instagram and unwittingly became a victim of sexual extortion, a crime the FBI warns is increasingly targeting underage boys and leading to an alarming increase in suicides nationwide.

Now Guffey is suing Instagram’s parent company, Meta, for wrongful death, gross negligence and other claims, saying it does not do enough to protect children like Gavin from online predators.

The lawsuit, filed in South Carolina state court last week, accuses Meta’s social media platforms of causing a range of problems in children, including depression, low self-esteem, anxiety and eating disorders. It alleges that Meta uses algorithms to aggressively target adolescents and does not do enough to keep them safe from harm……

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/30/us/rep-brandon-guffey-instagram-lawsuit-cec?cid=ios_app

Think about all of the young people that have taken their own life due to similar circumstances but their parent was not an elected official. I am glad that it is happening but I really do wish that there was more forethought and accountability to all things social media related. They really do need to pull the veil of anonymity back from social media accounts.

 

[Optimus Prime]

In a stunning moment during a congressional hearing over alleged online harms to children, the Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, turned to parents of victims on the Senate floor and apologized.

“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through,” Zuckerberg said as parents held up photos of their children who have died following sexual exploitation or harassment via social media.

“No one should go through the things that your families have suffered and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”

The Snap Inc CEO, Evan Spiegel, offered similar condolences to parents whose children were able to access illegal drugs on Snapchat. Parents of more than 60 teenagers filed suit in late 2023 against Snap for allegedly facilitating their children’s acquisitions of drugs that were used in overdoses.

“I’m so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these tragedies. We work very hard to block all search terms related to drugs on our platform,” Spiegel said.

Zuckerberg and Spiegel were among five executives being grilled in Congress on Wednesday in a hearing titled Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis.

The hearing was called to “examine and investigate the plague of online child sexual exploitation”, according to a statement from the US Senate judiciary committee.

Also attendance were chief executive officers including Linda Yaccarino of X (formerly Twitter), Shou Zi Chew of TikTok, and Jason Citron of Discord.……..

Zuckerberg tells parents of social media victims at Senate hearing: ‘I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through’

CEOs of Meta, X, TikTok, Snap and Discord questioned before Congress over alleged harms to young users on their platforms

www.theguardian.com

 

[Semper]

CNN) — About two weeks after his oldest son’s funeral, South Carolina state house Rep. Brandon Guffey says he received a private Instagram message with a laughing emoji.

Gavin Guffey, 17, had fatally shot himself in a bathroom in July 2022, and the grieving father was searching for clues on what led to his suicide.

Then Guffey and his younger son began to get messages demanding money in exchange for nude photos of his late son. Anyone on Gavin’s Instagram followers list who had the last name Guffey got similar messages, his father says.

The family began piecing together Gavin’s last moments and discovered he had encountered a scammer on Instagram and unwittingly became a victim of sexual extortion, a crime the FBI warns is increasingly targeting underage boys and leading to an alarming increase in suicides nationwide.

Now Guffey is suing Instagram’s parent company, Meta, for wrongful death, gross negligence and other claims, saying it does not do enough to protect children like Gavin from online predators.

The lawsuit, filed in South Carolina state court last week, accuses Meta’s social media platforms of causing a range of problems in children, including depression, low self-esteem, anxiety and eating disorders. It alleges that Meta uses algorithms to aggressively target adolescents and does not do enough to keep them safe from harm……

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/30/us/rep-brandon-guffey-instagram-lawsuit-cec?cid=ios_app

There has to be a way to stop this crap. Charge the developer with child sex crimes if they don’t clean it up.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Mark Zuckerberg apologized to the parents of children who killed themselves after being subjected to online sexual exploitation during a US Senate hearing Wednesday.

Evan Spiegel offered condolences to parents whose children obtained deadly illegal drugs via Snapchat.

The words were too little, too late for their intended audience, though. The grieving guardians expressed only frustration with the social media CEOs’ responses to their plight and to questions from members of Congress.

“I’m not happy with the answers the CEOs are giving. They can’t give a straight answer. Not even ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” said Tammy Rodriguez, the mother of Selena Rodriguez, who was 11 when she died by suicide three years ago after being solicited for sexually exploitative content by strangers on Instagram and Snapchat.

Dozens of mourning parents attended Wednesday’s senate judiciary committee hearing, Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis, many of them holding photographs of the children who died after falling prey to abusers on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

“I am disgusted listening to them. All I care about is the kids are protected and the companies are held accountable,” Rodriguez said.

Toney Roberts’ daughter Englyn was 14 when she killed herself after viewing harmful content on Instagram, including a video of a mock hanging. The video is still on Instagram more than three years after Englyn’s death. Roberts showed it to the Guardian.

“It is hard being here,” said Roberts, who had travelled from Louisiana to attend the hearing. “[The CEOs] are not answering the questions. The longer these companies are allowed to operate like this, the more children will get hurt. Something needs to happen now.”…….

“The existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health,” Zuckerberg told the crowded room.

Lori Schott, a bereaved mother from Colorado, said she cried when she heard Zuckerberg’s comments.

“They lack a moral compass; it is profits over the kids. Where there’s money, there’s greed,” she said.

Schott’s daughter Annalee was 18 when she died by suicide. According to Schott, Analee’s mental health deteriorated after consuming content on depression, anxiety and suicide that was recommended to her on TikTok and Instagram.

“She even saw a live suicide on the ‘For You’ page on TikTok. You can’t unsee that. It ate at her internally,” said Schott.…….

Yet Zuckerberg’s words seemed hollow to John DeMay, whose 17-year-old son Jordan killed himself in 2022 after falling victim to a scam soliciting him for sexual images over Instagram.

“The apology was forced,” said DeMay. “It doesn’t mean anything. It’s not going to bring my son back.”……

‘It was forced’: grieving parents unfazed by sorry tech CEOs at US Senate hearing

Many parents held up images of the children who died after falling prey to abusers on apps such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat

www.theguardian.com

 

[saintmdterps]

CNN) — About two weeks after his oldest son’s funeral, South Carolina state house Rep. Brandon Guffey says he received a private Instagram message with a laughing emoji.

Gavin Guffey, 17, had fatally shot himself in a bathroom in July 2022, and the grieving father was searching for clues on what led to his suicide.

Then Guffey and his younger son began to get messages demanding money in exchange for nude photos of his late son. Anyone on Gavin’s Instagram followers list who had the last name Guffey got similar messages, his father says.

The family began piecing together Gavin’s last moments and discovered he had encountered a scammer on Instagram and unwittingly became a victim of sexual extortion, a crime the FBI warns is increasingly targeting underage boys and leading to an alarming increase in suicides nationwide.

Now Guffey is suing Instagram’s parent company, Meta, for wrongful death, gross negligence and other claims, saying it does not do enough to protect children like Gavin from online predators.

The lawsuit, filed in South Carolina state court last week, accuses Meta’s social media platforms of causing a range of problems in children, including depression, low self-esteem, anxiety and eating disorders. It alleges that Meta uses algorithms to aggressively target adolescents and does not do enough to keep them safe from harm……

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/30/us/rep-brandon-guffey-instagram-lawsuit-cec?cid=ios_app

If it happened to my child I’d spare no expense to find the scammer. I’d shoot that person down with no remorse whatsoever. Carl Lee Haley…

 

[Saint_Ward]

Okaaayy.. then why dont they use photoshop or whatever you are cryptically implying to blackmail kids, instead of getting kids to send them pics ?

Blackmail is more effective when the person actually did it. They want the kids to panic and do something stupid.

 

[superchuck500]

Blackmail is more effective when the person actually did it. They want the kids to panic and do something stupid.

They are also using AI images now to similar effect. The premise is that the AI is so good at creating a real-looking nude or sexual image and the scammer tells the victim that no one will believe their denial.

 

[Optimus Prime]

it is terrible, and a conversation that needs to happen with teens

 

[Optimus Prime]

In a stunning moment during a congressional hearing over alleged online harms to children, the Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, turned to parents of victims on the Senate floor and apologized.

“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through,” Zuckerberg said as parents held up photos of their children who have died following sexual exploitation or harassment via social media.

“No one should go through the things that your families have suffered and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”

The Snap Inc CEO, Evan Spiegel, offered similar condolences to parents whose children were able to access illegal drugs on Snapchat. Parents of more than 60 teenagers filed suit in late 2023 against Snap for allegedly facilitating their children’s acquisitions of drugs that were used in overdoses.

“I’m so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these tragedies. We work very hard to block all search terms related to drugs on our platform,” Spiegel said.

Zuckerberg and Spiegel were among five executives being grilled in Congress on Wednesday in a hearing titled Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis.

The hearing was called to “examine and investigate the plague of online child sexual exploitation”, according to a statement from the US Senate judiciary committee.

Also attendance were chief executive officers including Linda Yaccarino of X (formerly Twitter), Shou Zi Chew of TikTok, and Jason Citron of Discord.……..

Zuckerberg tells parents of social media victims at Senate hearing: ‘I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through’

CEOs of Meta, X, TikTok, Snap and Discord questioned before Congress over alleged harms to young users on their platforms

www.theguardian.com

Could these apologies be used in the civil liability suits?

 

[Saint_Ward]

I sent this article to my 17 yr old.

Her response... teens are stupid.

Yes they are. Good answer.

 

[Mr. Sparkle]

Could these apologies be used in the civil liability suits?

Maybe but the alternative is to use the Big Tobacco playbook and just lie, which is not going to work when there is bound to be mountains of evidence that the tech companies absolutely targeted kids.

Better to make the apology and ask Congress to make a law that gives the companies some legal protections in exchange for some type of payout to the families and changes to their platforms.

I'm assuming that's why I keep seeing TV ads about Instagram wants to keep kids off the site, etc.

 

[BarBar]

This is horrible. And I think it's not just teens that are victims.

I am pretty sure my father was into something like this before he died.

Long story short....he died in 2022 suddenly. Trying to notify all his friends and acquaintances I logged onto his computer/e-mail. Shocked is an understatement. It was so icky I looked through the first page for anything legitimately looking like a friend or contact then turned it off.

He had owned his home clean and clear. I found out that he had taken out a mortgage loan for the full value of the home just 2 years prior. Money is nowhere to be found. Still haven't found it. I am pretty sure he was scammed, blackmailed, or extorted for 100k or so probably to do with sex stuff. The bank repossessed the home. It was really a horrible few weeks dealing with all that crap.

 

[Icon]

This is horrible. And I think it's not just teens that are victims.

I am pretty sure my father was into something like this before he died.

Long story short....he died in 2022 suddenly. Trying to notify all his friends and acquaintances I logged onto his computer/e-mail. Shocked is an understatement. It was so icky I looked through the first page for anything legitimately looking like a friend or contact then turned it off.

He had owned his home clean and clear. I found out that he had taken out a mortgage loan for the full value of the home just 2 years prior. Money is nowhere to be found. Still haven't found it. I am pretty sure he was scammed, blackmailed, or extorted for 100k or so probably to do with sex stuff. The bank repossessed the home. It was really a horrible few weeks dealing with all that crap.

Absolutely couldn't even imagine this. Very sorry to hear what you discovered and had to go through.

 

[BarBar]

Absolutely couldn't even imagine this. Very sorry to hear what you discovered and had to go through.

Thanks! It was absolutely not fun. He was super secretive about his life. For instance, the day he died is the day I found out he had a roommate. For 10 years this woman lived with him. He never mentioned her....I thought he lived alone lol. I walk in his house like....hello who the eff are you in my dad's house???

Another crazy thing....a year before his death he cancelled ALL his life insurance policies!!!!! No idea why. He was 67!!! I really think his mind was going and he was just really good at hiding it. He was of highly above average intelligence so he might have mechanisms in place to hide behind.

anyways it's off track for the thread sorry about that.

 

[Semper]

Thanks! It was absolutely not fun. He was super secretive about his life. For instance, the day he died is the day I found out he had a roommate. For 10 years this woman lived with him. He never mentioned her....I thought he lived alone lol. I walk in his house like....hello who the eff are you in my dad's house???

Another crazy thing....a year before his death he cancelled ALL his life insurance policies!!!!! No idea why. He was 67!!! I really think his mind was going and he was just really good at hiding it. He was of highly above average intelligence so he might have mechanisms in place to hide behind.

anyways it's off track for the thread sorry about that.

Sorry for your loss.