How to recognize behavioral signs of online temptation in your children

As parents and caregivers, how can we identify the signs of online temptation in our children? Unlike physical signs of sexual abuse, detecting behavioral signs can be much more challenging, especially as our children go through all the usual changes that come with becoming teenagers.

As highlighted in our 2024 Impact Report story – ‘A Father’s Call to Help’ – being alert to behavioral cues can result in…

Let’s first define a few terms.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) defines this Online seduction as “a person who communicates via the Internet with someone believed to be a child, with the intent to commit a sexual offense or kidnapping.” The concept of online seduction is an extensive category of online exploitation, and also includes sextortion.

Sextortion of our children occurs when a predator uses threats or manipulation to entice them to share sexually explicit images. Even if the predator does not have physical access to our children, they still often experience emotional and psychological damage from these interactions. Sextortion can take place on any platform where a conversation can take place, such as social media, messaging apps, gaming platforms, etc.

Innocent Lives Foundation CEO Chris Hadnagy was published in Your teen for parents on the subject of sextortion. Read the article here for more detailed information.