Sextortion of teen boys surges after COVID
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the FBI warn of a post‑COVID surge in financial sextortion schemes targeting U.S. teenage boys, often driven by overseas criminal networks using gaming and social apps and generative AI. Officials testified at a Sept. 16 Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that NCMEC saw explosive increases in AI‑enabled sextortion and that the FBI has stepped up arrests and recoveries, highlighting a national public‑safety and child‑protection crisis.
Public Safety
Crime
📌 Key Facts
- NCMEC reports a 1,325% increase in generative‑AI‑linked sextortion and child sexual‑abuse reports.
- NCMEC’s CyberTipline received over 36 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2023 and is working on roughly 30,000 active missing‑child cases.
- FBI enforcement under its Violent Crimes Against Children initiative: about 1,500 child‑predator arrests, 300 human‑trafficker arrests and 4,700 children identified/recovered in the past year; officials cited mass operations including '400 individuals in one month.'