Keep it Real on Social to Stay Safe

The Orange County Sheriff's Department is seeing an increase in incidences of sextortion, which involves coercing teens or children to send explicit content online, threatening to share it, and demanding payment to keep the images private.

This most often occurs when children or teens believe they are talking to someone their own age who is possibly interested in a relationship. Offenders use persuasive methods to obtain images and then shame or instill fear in their victims.

Here are some ways to prevent sextortion:

Keep your social media and gaming accounts private
Never accept friend requests from people you do not know in real life
Never send explicit photos of any kind
If you mess up, which happens, and someone is threatening you or coercing you to pay to keep the images private, talk to a trusted adult immediately. A trusted adult can be a parent, relative, teacher, school counselor, or anyone here at the Sheriff's Department. Our non-emergency line is 714-647-7000.

For more information, please visit ocsheriff.gov/staysafeoc.