Photo/Illutration A sextortion message is seen on a smartphone. In a typical case, the blackmailer threatens to release explicit photos of the victim. (Hiroshi Nakano)

Children in Japan are being warned about sextortion blackmail, in which minors are targeted for their naivety and reluctance to ask their parents for help.

Sextortion is on the rise in Japan. Reported cases spike during summer recess because teens spend more time at home on their phones.

In sextortion, a minor is befriended online and coerced into taking an intimate photo or video. In some cases, the victim is passive: The perpetrator uses generative AI to make a pornographic image using the victim’s face.

In most cases, children keep quiet about the blackmail, which backs them into a corner. 

“It is important for parents and guardians to build a relationship in which their children can casually and regularly consult them,” Kazuko Ito, vice president of Human Rights Now, said at a news conference on July 17.

Human Rights Now is a Tokyo-based nonprofit that tackles digital sexual violence.

Japan is not the only country where this occurs. A report by the Children and Families Agency said sextortion involving minors sharply rose in the United States in the years from 2019.

At least one American child committed suicide after becoming a victim in 2022. Utah and some other U.S. states have introduced laws to tackle the growing problem.

In Japan, where social norms and parent-child relationships may be less open and frank, child victims can quickly become ensnared without an adult to turn to.

There are resources available. Tokyo-based nonprofit the Organization for Pornography and Sexual Exploitation Survivors, or PAPS, is among the bodies that give advice to victims.

PAPS received 1,066 inquiries about sex-related extortion in the first 14 weeks of this fiscal year.

This is sharply up from previous years. It received 131 inquires in fiscal 2022, then 528 in fiscal 2023 and 1,864 in fiscal 2024.

One of the victims was a fifth-grader.

ENGLISH-LANGUAGE APPS

Many perpetrators target users of smartphone apps for learners of English. Victims also are found on relationship matching apps and regular messaging channels.

The pattern is this: After repeated exchanges, the offenders coerce the victims into an intimate conversation. A request is made for explicit photos or videos.

Then the blackmail begins. The scammer threatens to post the content to the victim’s social media followers or makes other unreasonable demands unless they are paid.

In some cases, the blackmailer does not demand payment but continues to extract graphic images or videos from the frightened victim.

As for money transfers, the scammers use e-money cards such as the Apple Gift Card, or cashless payments such as PayPay and cryptocurrencies.

Many perpetrators are overseas. There are two theories why this tends to be the case.

One view is that it has become easier for scammers to overcome the language barrier because of the widespread availability of generative artificial intelligence.

Another is that the scammers switched their attention to Japanese victims after the United States tightened regulations. Japan lags the United States on child protection measures.

“Sexual extortion is a form of fraud,” said Kazuna Kanajiri, chief director of PAPS. “It is possible that overseas crime groups are raking in the money by compartmentalizing their work.”

MALE VICTIMS

In all, 68 percent of the inquiries received by PAPS come from male victims.

In one case, a male school student received a naked photo from a woman he met on Instagram. The woman asked for a photo in return.

The boy refused, whereupon the individual sent a pornographic video that blended the boy’s photo, taken from social media, with the body of an unknown male.

The perpetrator threatened to send the clip to the student’s school unless he paid up using an e-cash card.

“Men tend to think they won't be targeted for sex crimes,” Kanajiri said.

WHAT TO DO

The support group PAPS recommends not engaging with a blackmailer.

It urges victims to take three steps: Send no further personal information; send no money; block the blackmailer and report the case to the authorities.

(This article was written by Shoko Mifune, Ryo Sanada and Daichi Itakura.)

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