Predators Eye Delhi Teens

Sextortion a new crime wave: Posing as teenagers, adult sex fiends coax kids to share nude photos only to blackmail them

- Ajay Kumar

It's A ticking bomb in the Capital. A student of engineering, a daily wage worker, a housekeeping manager with an MNC and an accountant with a fashion label may not have much in common except an uncontrollable urge to watch and share pornographic videos involving children. And they are not stopping at that.

In a new crime wave that has sent cops into a tizzy, these perverts are not just watching and sharing porn, but have actually begun to blackmail teenagers – extorting money by threatening to post sexual content, acquired deviously, online. The police and NGOs working to prevent child sex abuse call it ‘sextortion.’ It is a relatively lesser-known offence being fuelled by the explosion of broadband Internet connections and smartphones.

Many of these perpetrators assume fake online identities and chat up vulnerable teens to befriend them online. Once the victim is hooked, they send them nude pictures and persuade them to reciprocate. “Many a time, an elderly man or woman may assume a fake identity, pretending to be a teenager and chat up a victim,” says Anyesh Roy, Deputy Commissioner of Police, Cyber Crime, Delhi Police. “Many predators use such content to blackmail victims – where the motive is sexual favours. But professional blackmailers use it to extort money from teenagers or their family members,” says Roy.

THE CRACKDOWN

The Delhi Police have launched a comprehensive crackdown on sexual predators, on the basis of tip-offs provided by a US-based non-profit organisation. Over the last few weeks, the cyber crime cell has arrested six predators from different parts of the city following round-the-clock monitoring of their digital activities by the USbased National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).