Sexual extortion of children for profit is on the rise, Canada’s financial intelligence agency says, and a large portion of such activities are tied to organized crime.
This form of online coercion consists of threats to share sexual images or videos of a victim unless they provide the offenders with money or additional pictures, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC) says in a newly published operational alert.
The federal agency released the alert this week as part of its efforts to combat the online sexual exploitation of children.
“Online child sexual exploitation is a disturbing global crime targeting children that continues to rise year after year, not only in the number of confirmed reports showing child sexual abuse images, but also in the severity of the images and videos,” Fintrac said in a press release….