Sextortion Education project

The Cause

Calgary Police Service cyber-crime office tells us the vast majority of active files they have are "Sextortion" cases. Canadian News stories and a Netflix documentary (Web of make believe: Death, Lies and the internet) has exposed this epidemic of victimizing young internet users. The news stories that make it to air, sadly end in suicide. Sextortion perpetrators befriend young people (primarily junior high aged boys) with the lure of a sexual relationship and start asking for naked pictures. Once they receive them, they will then turn on the young victim asking for money for them not to be sent to family and friends. Many perpetrators live outside the country and are difficult to prosecute if caught. Education is the key to prevent this crime.

The idea this funding will help is to develop educational materials that will go out directly to junior high schools through the School Resource officers. The materials will be targeting to the junior high aged as well as a separate one for parents.

Along with this educational handout, we will find other funding to develop an educational film along with the take home document. We have already gained the support of the Calgary Police Service and their Cybercrime unit will visit all area junior high schools and youth centres with an ethical hacker (professional designated) and the local school resource police officer to present appropriate aged educational materials to help young people prevent or encourage to report this crime to the local authorities. The video itself will live publicly on Youtube after the initial pilot in schools. Junior High aged Calgarians and their families will benefit from the knowledge and expected results include less victims of sextortion in our area over time and increased disclosures that have not been reported to Police. Reducing the incidents of Sextortion will also lead to less funds flowing into organized crime.

Who Will it Benefit?

The project will directly benefit the K-12 students, more specifically, junior high aged target audience. The students benefit with education and empowerment to navigate the internet safely. Over the last 6 years we have worked with this age group through Mental Health, Anti Bullying and cyberbullying projects (find out more on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@12CSI) and Indigenous Inclusion projects. We have worked alongside and with the support of the Calgary Police Service since our inception, 15 years ago.
We will start the pilot project with 20 schools at 400 students on average per school. Siblings and parents of these students will also benefit from the knowledge.