Local law enforcement is looking to stop sex crimes against young boys in our area
REXBURG, Idaho (KIFI) – Local News 8's Ariel Jensen spoke with Detective Christian Teague at the Madison County Sheriff's office about what is being done to stop sex crimes against young boys in our area.
Teague is working with the Attorney General's Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
They tell me parents are the key to helping their children stay safe.
These boys are just playing games. They're just talking to friends online. It seems so innocent, but what lies in the dark corners of the web is something called sextortion and they are targeting young boys.
"They're the target of sextortion because they are less likely to report it to their parents and they're more likely to comply with, you know, this individual online demands and just for fear of of what would happen to them if they talked to their parents," said Detective Teague.
Take a look at this seemingly innocent conversation.
This is an actual discussion between a 10-year-old boy and a 23-year-old predator. testing his limits with the child
"So that was from an old case that's been closed since. And that was a suspect who was talking online over a platform called Discord," said Detective Teague.
Discord is a social app intended to be an easy way to chat with friends.
"It wasn't very aggressive conversation or anything like that. The suspect was playing truth or dare with this kid. You know, Can you hold your breath for a minute? Can you jump up and down ten times? Stuff like that? It's very innocent conversation initially to gain that trust of that child," said Detective Teague.
Parents are being asked to be on high, alert with their child's social feeds. sex extortion can happen to anyone.
"Yeah. So sextortion can happen as early as I've seen it in cases with middle schoolers, but it happens a lot with high schoolers. And even here locally, we see it with college students who are extorted as well, too. So it's all ages,” said Detective Teague.
Detective Teague tells Local News 8 talking to your children about their social media accounts can be difficult, but if they are resistant to share then there might be something wrong.
