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MELBOURNE, Australia — If you thought revenge porn and leaking nude photos was disturbing enough, brace yourself for the even darker phenomenon of “sextortion.” A major new international study has found that threatening to share someone's intimate photos or videos unless they comply with demands like paying money or sharing more explicit content is shockingly common. In fact, 14.5% of adults across 10 countries have been victims of this crime. That's roughly one in seven people.
The findings, in a nutshell
The research, published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior, aimed to shed light on this form of sexual abuse and cybercrime that has been spreading rapidly in recent years. Law enforcement agencies have been sounding the alarm about an “explosion” in sextortion cases, especially financial sextortion scams targeting teenage boys and young men. However, the new study reveals it's not just a problem for youth - it's impacting adult populations in startling numbers, too.
“For financial forms of sextortion, scammers trick people into sharing their intimate images, or lead them to believe they have evidence of the victim visiting pornographic sites,” says Professor Nicola Henry from RMIT’s Social Equity Research Centre in a media release. “They then use this evidence to threaten to share intimate images if they don’t comply with their demands, like paying money or sending more intimate images.”
Although sextortion usually takes the form of a financial scam, the study authors also found that these crimes are actually more likely to be committed by a victim's intimate partner.
Methodology: How Did the Study Work?
To get a comprehensive look at sextortion internationally, the researchers collaborated with YouGov to survey over 16,000 adults across 10 countries: Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, South Korea, Spain, and the United States.
Within each country, they aimed for a nationally representative sample balanced by gender, age, and region. The survey asked people about their experiences of being threatened with the sharing of intimate imagery, as well as if they had ever been the perpetrator issuing such threats.
In addition to gauging overall prevalence rates, the study explored potential demographic risk factors like age, gender, and sexual orientation that made people more vulnerable to being victims or perpetrators. It also looked at the overlap between being a victim and being an offender.
Study Results
Across all 10 countries, 14.5% of respondents reported being victims of threats to share their nude photos or videos. That's roughly one in seven adults who have faced this traumatic form of sexual abuse and extortion.
Even more disturbingly, 4.8% admitted to being perpetrators who had issued sextortion threats against others. The rates were highest in South Korea at over 11%.
Men were 17% more likely than women to be sextortion victims and 43% more likely to be perpetrators. LGBTQ+ individuals were over twice as likely to experience sextortion as non-LGBTQ+. Younger people under 35 were at significantly higher risk, both for victimization and perpetrating.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the study found a strong overlap between being a victim and being an offender, suggesting a cyclical aspect where victims go on to perpetrate the crime themselves, possibly in retaliation. For those who experienced the most significant sextortion incident against them, the most common perpetrators were former or current romantic partners — around half of victims overall.
Study Limitations
The study only captured data from 10 countries, so a fuller global picture is still necessary. It also relied on self-reporting of these sensitive experiences, which tend to be undercounted due to shame and stigma.
Some country-level findings, like South Korea's extremely high perpetration rate, didn't align with expectations and merit further investigation, possibly using qualitative methods.
The survey was also focused specifically on sextortion through sharing intimate imagery - other methods like sharing explicit texts or recordings were excluded.
Takeaways
Despite the limitations, the overall picture is still extremely concerning. Sextortion appears to be far more widespread than previously assumed, impacting huge swaths of the adult population in pervasive ways like a “hidden pandemic.”
“First and foremost, prevention education at the school, university, and community levels needs to be tailored specifically to at-risk groups, especially boys and young men,” Prof. Henry says.
“Frontline workers also need to be trained to recognize the signs of sextortion and respond to disclosures in a trauma-informed and culturally appropriate way, and provide appropriate supports and referrals. Sextortion should be part of conversations about intimate partner violence and dating abuse, not just in the context of financial scams.”
This study benefited from two Google grants awarded to Henry, with the second grant focusing specifically on AI-generated intimate imagery.
EdNews Editor Chris Melore contributed to this report.
