A retired police officer warns that online predators who target young people on social media are just as dangerous as those who prey on children in physical spaces. The warning comes after a 37-year-old man from Oregon was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually exploiting three teenage girls from British Columbia. The man used social media platforms like Snapchat and Instagram to connect with the girls and coerce them into sending explicit images. The incident highlights the need for digital literacy education and awareness to protect young people from online predators.
Those who prey on youth on social media are no different from predators who troll playgrounds, pools and arcades, says a Victoria online investigator.
Of those, 285 have been males, who are commonly targeted for money and gift cards, while girls are typically targeted for sexual images. The B.C. teens who fell victim to McCarty’s stalking might well have heard Laur’s presentation in school or know of the 2012 suicide death of Port Coquitlam’s Amanda Todd, 15, who was blackmailed and harassed into exposing herself in front of a webcam.
If a new friend or follower request comes in, Laur suggests researching it, asking other friends to verify them, and checking out their social-media pages, which often have lots of friends but few posts. The first victim was 14 when she began communicating with McCarty in about July 2020. McCarty contacted her via Snapchat and asked to be friends, then moved to Instagram. They began to “date” online.
“She became depressed from McCarty’s constant abuse and started to cut herself,” say court documents. The second victim, who was 15 and from the West Shore, befriended McCarty, who was impersonating a girl her age on Snapchat. The West Shore victim sent two nude photos and was extorted for more. In September 2021, she told a counsellor with the youth outreach team in West Shore that nude images of her were being circulated around school and she was being blackmailed.
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