Protecting children from online predators using this social media app

REXBURG, Idaho (KIFI) – The COVID pandemic may have had a disturbing side effect, an increase in predators targeting children online.

So what are local law enforcement agencies doing to protect kids?

Local News 8 's Ariel Jensen has been talking with the Madison Sheriff's office.

When COVID hit all our young students were sent home from school with laptops, tablets, and computers.

This has made it easy for internet predators to reach children.

Last week I reported on internet predators targeting young boys, and how sextortion is a form of child exploitation where children are persuaded to share explicit photos or videos.

They are then blackmailed into sharing the photos with the public. 

Our children are at risk and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children reports sex extortion increased by 323% but Madison County has recognized one app to be the main problem.

Christian Teague Madison Sheriff County Detective said, "The app that causes the most issues for us it would be Snapchat. So this year alone, the attorney general's office received over 2000 cyber tips over 50% of those were reported by Snapchat," Christian Teague Madison Sheriff County Detective said, "Snapchat gives the illusion to its users that photo you take, every video you send is going to disappear and it won't be around anymore."

"but we know that's not true with online enticement and sexual exploitation of children Snapchat usually will alert the user that the other person is taking a screenshot of an image or even a chat that you sent. However, suspects nowadays, and I've seen it in personal cases here in Madison, where they'll hold the device that has Snapchat that they're communicating with a child on, but they have another device and they're going to take a picture of it. There's no way that child knows that their image has been saved to another device," Teague continued.

We are being reminded again, to watch what our children are doing on our phones...

"mask their age and to be able to talk to kids easier. Kids are super worried about their snap streak, trying to keep up meeting new people and finding new friends on Snapchat. They're not knowing who they are," said Teague.

Okay, I was skeptical too when I first heard this, but there is a way to remove explicit photos from the internet.

Detective Teague tells me of a website called 'https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/'

This is a trusted website where you upload the original photo to take down the rest from the internet.