WFSB Channel 3Is your teen a victim of sextortion?

Milford Police Detective Rich Frawley says sextortion is becoming a problem among teenagers.

"With cell phones, the smartphones, it's a lot easier. They come with cameras, they come with video chat," said Frawley.

Sextortion occurs when a teenager who has shared a racy picture or video online or through a cell phone is blackmailed by someone looking for more images. If the teenager does not send more images, the blackmailer threatens to post their photographs all over the internet.

Experts say technology makes it easy to be impulsive.

In January, the last of five teens convicted in a Facebook sextortion scheme in Michigan were sentenced by a judge. Their sentences range from probation to at least 20 years behind bars.

Also in January, a judge sentenced a Maryland man to 33 years in prison for a similar kind of scheme involving underage girls in Indiana and Florida.

Experts said people are fishing the internet looking for racy photographs teenagers post of themselves and then use those images to blackmail the youngsters.

Sextortion hit closer to home with a middle school girl from Milford, who in late 2010 used a webcam to post a racy photograph of herself. The person who saw the photograph blackmailed her to perform sex acts in front of the webcam or he would post her photograph on Facebook.

"That person used that picture against her to get her to do more things on the camera," said Frawley.

The girl ended up going to her parents, who then turned to police.

But experts say sometimes sextortion victims are too scared to speak up, embarrassed about an initial lapse in judgment. 

"A lot of people are afraid to come forward because of the (stigma) and what happens after. We're all seeing cases of it, but we don't think we're seeing as much as is out there due to (the stigma)," said Frawley

So what can parents to do prevent something like this?

Experts say adults may want to disable webcams on their children's phones and computers. Keeping the lines of communication open and monitoring their teenagers' online activity is a good way to prevent them from becoming victims.

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