Amanda Todd's mother vows to keep fighting 'sextortion'

Blackmailed her into providing explicit sex videos A Dutch man convicted of trying to help other teens and vulnerable young people who are exposed to similar online harassment.

"Having won this sextortion trial and obtained a (guilty) verdict, her legacy will continue," said Carol Todd. The results educate victims and warn similar predators.

Amanda's tragic story of years of being harassed by an anonymous predator follows a friend, whom she exposed herself to online, They may have threatened to forward family or school images. Please save other young people from suffering like she did, Todd said.

"How can we take advantage of this to get more visibility," she said.

Amanda committed suicide in 2012 after she posted a video featuring a series of flashcards of her describing the cyberbullying she experienced. Since then, the video has been viewed 14 million times.

He Aydin Coban of the Netherlands, who used more than 20 different aliases, was accused of harassment, extortion, possession and distribution of child pornography, and child pornography in 2014. He was charged with five counts, including correspondence with Young people for sexual purposes. He was convicted in BC last weekend. The Supreme Court has yet to issue a ruling.

Todd reported that other of his teens who were receiving sexual threats told a trusted adult about sextortion and reported it. I hope you understand that if you do, you do not have to submit to your tormentors. to the police.

She raised her awareness through a non-profit organization started in her daughter's name called Amanda Her Todd Her Legacy and through her Facebook page. I said I would keep trying. Todd said he receives about two messages a week from parents around the world who are concerned that their child is being blackmailed.

"When Amanda died, it was rarely talked about. She didn't even talk about her mental health out loud," she said. rice field. "It's about raising awareness about bullying and cyberbullying and teaching respect."

And she explained that Coban's beliefs frightened other predators. and want to continue harassing victims.

Statistics Canada reports suggest fraud involving sextortion. Sextortion, the threat to distribute personal and often sexually explicit material online if the victim doesn't comply, has increased during COVID.

Incidents of non-consensual distribution of personal images involving adult or child victims increased by 194 last year compared to 2020. Over the past decade, police reports say Canada's extortion cases have increased by nearly 300%.

Cybertip.ca, a national tip line for reporting child sexual abuse online, wrote, "It is easy to fall prey to aggressive sextortion. "We are receiving an unprecedented amount of reports from young people and sometimes concerned parents about what they are doing." That equates to about 300 online extortion cases per month.

"It's out of control," said Signy Arnason, associate executive director of the Canadian Child Protection Center.

Police across the country have publicly warned of such intimidation attempts targeting young people, and experts say more regulation, education and legal Seeking execution.

Wayne McKay, professor emeritus of law at Dalhousie University, said some of the increase could be explained by increased awareness and crackdowns on cybercrime, but research It also suggests that online child sexual abuse is common. will no longer be reported.

In July he investigated 322 sextortion cases of him received by Cybertip.ca and found that if the gender was known, 92% of them It turns out that a boy or young man was involved.

More police resources and education are needed, says David Fraser, an internet and privacy attorney at Canadian law firm McInnes Cooper in Halifax. said.

"Generally, I see an overall lack of skill and ability on the part of police to translate existing laws into the online context. I'm here,' he said. "Exploitation is exploitation."

"There are still many people who report this criminal activity and do not get the attention of the police," said an attorney at Toronto's Torys LLP. said her Molly Reynolds.

Incidents involving children were likely to be investigated as criminal offences, and adults who were intimidated were likely to sue their torturers, she said. has seen a significant increase in the number of civil cases involving sexual extortion. ``The demand is enormous. 

Darren Roll, chief training officer at The White Hatters, a company that educates internet safety and digital literacy, said the law He said he hadn't kept up with the technology.

So-called deepfakes (using existing images and videos to create fake but believable video footage) pose new challenges. produces The blatant act must be coerced, said her Laur, a former Victorian police sergeant.

Reynolds said the law would be able to "keep up with technology and the harm it creates."

"We need to make it easier for people to take these cases to court and test the boundaries, whether criminal or civil," she said. rice field.

The Canadian Child Protection Center is calling for greater regulation of social media companies such as Snapchat and Instagram.

Mr Laur said it had been calling for years to create an online regulatory body like Australia's eSafety Commissioner, creating a "blueprint for how to do this".

The Canadian Heritage Agency said in a statement that the federal government is "developing approaches to address harmful online content and "This includes the potential creation of a regulatory body," the minister said, "and we are holding roundtables across Canada to hear from victims of online harm, including children and young people."

Todd, who said the police had told him to restrict access to Amanda's computer, explained how frontline officers handle sextortion complaints and how they A special unit that may be called upon to investigate such incidents.