Michigan lawmakers discuss ‘sextortion’ legislation to address growing threat to children • Michigan Advance

“He was tragically tortured,” DeMay’s father, John DeMay, said at a news conference Wednesday. “He was convinced and manipulated into sending an explicit photo of himself, which he did, and once that happened, the extortion began. It was vicious, it was consistent, it was methodical, and it was targeted.”

There was no young woman who spoke to DeMay. Instead, it was two men in Nigeria who were involved in more than 100 similar extortion schemes who ordered DeMay to commit suicide.

Recruiting individuals online for explicit photos and then harassing and blackmailing them, known as sextortion, is a growing problem across the country, Michigan state Rep. Jen Hill, D-Marquette, said during a news conference Wednesday about a package of bills to explicitly criminalize the act.

Hill noted that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has identified sextortion as a form of sexual abuse that specifically targets minors, particularly boys between the ages of 14 and 17.

Between October 2021 and March 2023, there will be more than The FBI and Homeland Security Investigations received 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minorsThese reports resulted in at least 20 suicides, and the FBI noted in 2024 that reports of sextortion of minors are increasing rapidly.

“One case is too many. One family grieving is too many,” Hill said during the news conference. “We must act now to protect our children, to prevent more heartbreak, and to ensure that no family has to endure this heartbreak.”

The package of accounts, HB number 5887, HB number 5888 And HB number 5889 Together, we are creating specific criminal penalties for sexual extortion where they do not exist in Michigan. In addition, we are distributing educational resources to schools on how to talk to students about the dangers of sexual extortion and how to get help.

“We are sending a message to the rest of the world. ‘Michigan will not tolerate the exploitation of our children, and we will not leave children without the support they need,'” Hill said. “Schools, law enforcement and communities will have another tool to protect our young people and raise awareness… I urge my colleagues, both Democrats and Republicans, to stand with me. This is not and should not be a partisan issue. This is a moral issue.”

Adults who “willfully and maliciously” threaten to distribute explicit visual material of another individual for the purpose of manipulating a victim could be charged with a felony under the proposed legislation. Depending on whether this is the individual’s first offense or whether the victim is under 18 or suffers bodily harm or death, the penalties range from a potential maximum prison sentence of five years to a maximum of 20 years in prison.

If the perpetrator of sexual extortion is under 18, he or she can be charged with a felony. This can lead to a prison sentence of up to one year.

The grief over DeMay’s death and the brutality he endured reverberated throughout the community, Marquette County Sheriff Gregory Zyburt said, recalling the funeral where thousands of DeMay’s colleagues attended to support the family.

“If you talk to any officer in their career, there are three or four complaints they’ve filed that they’ll never forget. This is one of them for me,” Zyburt said.

And because DeMay’s parents were willing to cooperate with police at the time, authorities were able to engineer a historic extradition of the perpetrators from Nigeria, leading to the couple… sentenced to more than 17 years in prisonBut the DeMay family’s lasting impact is that they are starting a conversation about a topic often shrouded in shame.

“…this message needs to be known by every child out there,” Zyburt said. “It’s not the end of the world and it’s not worth taking your life.”

Sextortion of minors and other sex crimes against children need to be discussed more, Grand Rapids Police Chief Eric Winstrom said during the news conference.

Not only are the topics of suicide and sexual violence difficult to talk about, especially when it involves children, Winstrom said, but members of the police and state legislature, who are typically older, have not grown up with the same dangers that lurk on social media and other places on the Internet.

“To see the leaders in our state step up and be willing to stand in front of the cameras and have this conversation, it’s going to be … a very positive thing,” Winstrom said. “You look at the leaders that Jordan got into these rooms … The momentum that Jordan is building to make sure that we protect our children in the state of Michigan … This is so important to us and so important to the children of Michigan.”