Sexual predators are the tip of the iceberg. Children are often blackmailed on the Internet by someone who knows them, experts warn

On the Internet, the young generation is most worried about someone else getting access to their private information, getting, for example, photos, videos or some intimate information, information about mental health, and then using it for bullying.

“It will damage relationships with family or friends, or that it may even lead to a physical attack,” explains Jan Cibulka.

Schools are a problem

Young people have reason to worry. Almost every week we read in the newspaper how some cybercriminal group broke into the system of a school or perhaps a medical facility. “And young people cannot choose not to go to a school that has poor cyber security,” adds editor Jana Magdoňová.

According to her, the schools are the problem, because they keep a lot of sensitive information about students, evaluations by teachers, educational advisors, information about problems in the family.

But if teenagers are worried about their privacy, why do they share a lot of information on social networks?

Maybe because they don’t have many alternatives to communicate with friends or family. “So we all hold each other hostage on large social networks, where nobody really likes us, but nobody wants to be the first to leave,” explains Cibulka.

Blackmail by expartner

But what do you mean by harassment on the Internet? “Classic sexual predators, that is, some stranger looking for random children on the Internet, that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Very often, children and young people are blackmailed by someone they know. Especially a former partner, for example.”

When they are dating, intimate photos are exchanged, but when they break up, after the breakup, such materials become a weapon for blackmail. Unlike cyberbullying, it is even harder to seek help.

“Young people feel that they are to blame for sending those photos or videos. Moreover, these are things that they may not want to show and tell their parents, and thus ask for help. Kateřina Lišková from Linka bezpečí points out that these are exactly the situations when children start having suicidal thoughts because they cannot see a way out,” points out Cibulka.

How to defend yourself?

The safety line recommends that the first thing to do is to break contact with the person who is blackmailing them. “But before any communication is deleted, it is important to screen the communication so that you don’t lose it, so that you have some proof that it happened, and ideally then go to the police with it,” advises Magdoňová.

Children and young people should also overcome their initial fear and go to their parents or perhaps to someone close to them at school, to a favorite teacher or educational advisor and turn to them with a problem.