LANSING, Mich. (WZMQ) -Online crimes like sextortion are becoming more and more common as kids begin using the internet as social media at younger ages. Parents Together Action (PTA) is a non-profit focused on advocating for changes to slow that increase.
Today, the group hosted the parents of four children who have experienced sextortion on Meta platforms. That group included Jenn Buta, the mother of Jordan DeMay, the 17-year-old Marquette boy who took his life after becoming the target of a sextortion scheme on Instagram.
“Instead of meta taking responsibility for what is happening, they are putting that on to the parents and I heard Mark Zuckerberg loud and clear say ‘with proper parenting, children don’t need restrictions.’ That made my veins burn.” – Jenn Buta on Mark Zuckerbergs U.S. Senate testimony
Buta explained that law enforcement had to file to get a copy of the messages off of Jordan’s account, and were denied the first time. She said the full reporting process can take months despite the rates of sexual extortion cases being higher than ever before. According to PTA, platforms like Instagram are now taking up to two months to report incidents to the Nation Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The group called on Meta executives to make changes that would ease the reporting process to remove predatory accounts, block them from creating new ones, require 72-hour report times, and create a proactive system to detect recognizable patterns in conversations.
“How many times were the words ‘I’m going to kill myself’ said in my son’s conversation? and they did nothing to step in and stop it. Jordan at some point said: ‘Why are you doing this to me? I feel like I want to take my own life.’ And they said ‘We’re going to watch you die in miserable death.’” Buta said. “So my son alone in the dark and the wee hours of the night. Decided to take his own life and these people tortured him for hours. Our children are getting hurt and dying because of Meta’s platforms, and they’re literally doing nothing to stop it. They have an obligation to take all measures that they can to keep these predators from coming into our homes that night and hurting our children.”
Three other parents also spoke during the conference. Stephen Carnes, of from Rome, Georgia.The father of Eryn Carnes who was 15 years old when she became the victim of sextortionists on Facebook who convinced her she was in a relationship with them to continue soliciting more images.
J, a parent who wishes to stay anonymous, whose daughter was sextorted on Instagram at 12 years old by a criminal who threatened to kill her and her family if she didn’t keep sending explicit photos. This went on for 6 months before J discovered what was happening, and she is still dealing with the impact on her daughter’s mental health.
And Mary Rodee, from Canton, New York. Mary’s son, Riley, died by suicide at 15 years old. He was sextorted on Facebook by an adult who pretended to be a teenage girl and then threatened to release explicit images of Riley unless he gave them thousands of dollars. Riley, ashamed and frightened, died just six hours after the contact began. Meta never responded when Mary and Riley’s father reported the incident.
“How many more empty chairs at dinner tables? how many more closed-off bedroom doors? how many more families need to join this club before you do something?Every day Meta sits in silence, allowing their platforms to continue to facilitate sextortion. More Erins, Jordans, and Rileys feel backed into unthinkable corners. scared and desperate, seeing only the most heart-wrenching way out.” – Shelby Knox, Director of online safety campaigns with Parents Together Action
Meta has introduced sextortion prevention tools, but the parents said those tools put the responsibility on children to identify and disrupt abuse coming from adults misusing the platform.
