As sextortion surges nationwide, Blaine police urge families to act fast and use national reporting tools

Blaine, MN

The Blaine Police Department is warning families that sextortion has become one of the fastest-growing threats facing young people online, as new national data show an unprecedented surge in reports of child sexual exploitation and online enticement.

In a recent public advisory, the department directed residents to the CyberTipline, operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, as well as NCMEC’s image-removal service, Take It Down. Together, the tools form the backbone of the nation’s response to online crimes involving children.

The warning comes as the scale of the problem has expanded dramatically. According to NCMEC, the CyberTipline received more than 20.5 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2024 alone. Reports of online enticement, a category that includes sextortion, increased by 192 percent compared to the previous year.

A new and deadly pattern: financial sextortion

Driving much of the spike is financial sextortion, a tactic in which perpetrators coerce minors into sharing explicit images and then immediately demand money under the threat of public exposure. In many cases, the offender threatens to send the images to classmates, family members, or entire contact lists unless payment is made.

NCMEC reports that teenage boys have increasingly become the primary targets of these schemes, which are often linked to organized criminal networks operating overseas, including in West Africa. In 2024, NCMEC received nearly 100 reports of financial sextortion every day.

The human toll has been severe. Since 2021, at least 36 teenage boys have died by suicide after being targeted by sextortion schemes, according to NCMEC reporting. Law enforcement and child safety advocates stress that these outcomes underscore the urgency of early intervention and reporting.

How artificial intelligence has changed the threat

The landscape shifted further in 2024 and 2025 with the rapid spread of generative artificial intelligence. NCMEC reports that tips involving generative AI increased by more than 1,300 percent in a single year.

In these cases, offenders no longer need to obtain an actual image from a victim. Instead, they scrape publicly available photos from social media and use AI tools to create realistic, explicit deepfake images. Victims are then blackmailed with content that never existed before, amplifying fear and confusion while making the crime harder for families to recognize.

The national reporting pipeline

The Blaine Police Department emphasizes that the CyberTipline is the official national reporting mechanism for suspected child sexual exploitation. Reports can include inappropriate sexual messages sent to a child, online enticement, sexual abuse, child sex trafficking, or explicit images or videos involving a minor.

Once submitted, reports are reviewed by NCMEC analysts and made available to appropriate local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies for investigation, including departments like Blaine’s.

In cases where explicit images are involved, NCMEC’s Take It Down service offers a rare measure of control in an internet ecosystem built for permanence. The tool allows a minor, or a parent acting on their behalf, to create a digital fingerprint, known as a hash, of an explicit image or video. The file never leaves the user’s device and is never viewed by NCMEC. Participating platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat use the hash to automatically detect and remove matching content if it is uploaded.

What authorities urge families and youth to do

Law enforcement and child protection experts are clear that paying extortion demands or sending additional images almost never stops the abuse. Instead, they recommend immediate, coordinated action:

• Stop communication by blocking the offender on all platforms.
• Preserve evidence by taking screenshots of messages, usernames, payment demands, and profiles, while keeping the original conversations intact.
• Report promptly through the CyberTipline and use Take It Down if images or videos are involved.
• Seek help quickly from a trusted adult, school counselor, or local police department.

If a child is in immediate danger, authorities advise calling 911.

The Blaine Police Department says its goal in sharing these resources is not to alarm families, but to ensure they know help exists and that victims are not alone. As sextortion grows more sophisticated and more widespread, officials stress that swift reporting remains one of the most effective tools for protecting young people and disrupting those who exploit them.

MinneapoliMedia