Today the Tech Coalition hosted a global multi-stakeholder forum on combating the financial sextortion of children. The virtual half-day event was a follow up to our June 2023 forum on the same topic. Building on last year’s gathering, this forum provided an opportunity for representatives of the tech industry, financial sector, global law enforcement, civil society, academia, and governments to provide updates on the current status of this heinous crime and progress in responding since June 2023.
Over the last couple of years, this threat has continued to grow. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has labeled financial sextortion a "growing crisis," highlighting a significant increase in reports to their CyberTipline. In 2023, the CyberTipline received 186,819 reports of online enticement, including financial sextortion—a 323 percent increase from 2021. According to the FBI, since 2021, at least 20 children in the United States alone have taken their lives due to financial sextortion. In addition, new stats from Snap's annual Digital Well-Being research released today found that Gen Z remains a target for online sextortion, but there are signs of progress to thwart offenders and educate potential targets.
These stats, and the presentations we heard today, underscore the urgent need for comprehensive global strategies and collaboration among tech companies, financial institutions, law enforcement, policymakers, civil society, and parents and caregivers. That’s why today’s forum culminated with several new industry-led efforts, among them including:
- Facilitating signal sharing through Lantern, with a focus on financial institutions: The Tech Coalition’s Lantern program is a first-of-its-kind initiative that allows the tech industry to safely and securely share signals about online child sexual exploitation and abuse across tech platforms. The Tech Coalition is currently running a pilot with the financial services industry – a key sector in the fight against financial sextortion – to evaluate whether signal sharing can lead to positive outcomes by disrupting the financial incentives associated with this crime. In the coming weeks and months, the Tech Coalition will focus on executing and assessing the effectiveness of this pilot.
- Improving the actionability of financial sextortion cases reported to NCMEC: by updating the financial sextortion resources that we provide Tech Coalition and Pathways’ members, with input from NCMEC, to outline the information helpful for processing a financial sextortion case.
- Raising awareness of financial sextortion: by creating an educational web page on our public-facing website.
- Sharing industry good practices: The Tech Coalition will develop and share a financial sextortion toolkit with members of the Pathways program, similar to the toolkit that has already been developed and shared with Tech Coalition members. Through these toolkits, the Tech Coalition also will provide companies with expert advice on how to educate users and parents about the dangers of financial sextortion that are tailored to different types of platforms. We will also support our members to share learnings with each other resulting from educational campaigns and public service announcements on this issue.
Speakers included representatives from TikTok, Meta, Snap Inc., PayPal, Western Union, NCMEC, the U.S. Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Cote d’Ivoire Ministry of the Interior and Security, Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), the Philippines’ Department of Justice and National Police, and Cyber Security Experts Association of Nigeria (CSEAN).
We are grateful for everyone who participated in the event. Together, we can build a safer digital world for children across the world. Our members are committed to not just responding to this crisis but preventing it from happening in the first place. By uniting our strengths and sharing our knowledge, we can create a future where financial sextortion is a thing of the past.
The event was attended by more than 150 people, with representatives from 20 Tech Coalition member companies. Tech Coalition member company attendees included, Amazon, Discord, Dropbox, GoDaddy, Google, MediaLab, Meta, Microsoft, PayPal, Pinterest, Snap Inc., TikTok, VSCO, X, Yahoo Inc., Yubo, and Zoom.
