Homeland Security Investigations is looking into a possible
Myrtle Beach area case of “sextortion”, a fairly new and growing crime that
targets teenagers through their use of social media websites such as Facebook
and Instagram. As social networking grows, experts say, so does the opportunity
for predators to contact children, gain their trust and then blackmail them
into engaging in sex or sending lewd photos of themselves over the Internet. The
Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a Justice Department program that
helps state and local law enforcement battle sexual exploitation of children,
said such cases totaled 7,000 nationwide in 2013, up from 5,300 cases just
three years earlier.
“Predators used to stalk the playground. This is the new
playground,” Brock Nicholson, an HSI special agent based in Atlanta told USA
Today this month. “I would argue that this is an epidemic and people have no
idea.” Information from an affidavit for a search warrant in the Myrtle Beach
area case mirrors dozens of sextortion tales on the FBI’s website and in court
documents nationwide. According to the affidavit and related court documents, a
Homeland Security Investigations special agent executed a search warrant
earlier this month at a home on Pinto Lane in unincorporated Horry County,
where the agent seized a laptop computer, a Nook tablet, a PlayStation Portable
and documents believed to be associated with the sextortion of a 14-year-old
girl from Michigan.
Investigators believe 22-year-old man who is staying at that
address, may have played a role in the sextortion, according to the affidavit.
No charges have been filed against the man, who did not respond to a request
for comments. The Sun News does not use the names of suspects who have not been
charged. Homeland Security and Michigan officials traced an IP address used to
access social networks where photos of the girl had been uploaded to an account
registered to the suspect, according to the affidavit. Other IP addresses used
to access the social networks were traced to Ripley’s Aquarium and Ben &
Jerry’s ice cream shop, both located at Broadway at the Beach. The suspect, a
2014 Coastal Carolina University graduate, worked at Ben & Jerry’s and the
Margaritaville restaurant at Broadway at the Beach, adjacent to the aquarium,
during the times photos were posted to the social media sites, the affidavit
states.
According to the affidavit, the Tuscola County, Mich., Sheriff’s
Office met with the 14-year-old girl’s parents in February after learning of
nude images of the girl stored on her iPod. The girl told police that she had
been contacted by a stranger via the Instagram picture and message sharing
service. While communicating with the stranger through Instagram and Kik
Messenger, the girl sent the stranger a picture of herself wearing a bathing
suit as well as a picture of herself wearing underwear.
The stranger, who claimed to be an 18-year-old male from Georgia,
then requested nude photos of the girl and threatened to post the pictures she
had already sent online if she did not comply. The girl eventually sent the
nude photos and the stranger continued to pressure her into sending more
explicit pictures, again threatening to post those she had already sent if she
did not respond. The girl told police that the photographs the stranger
requested “ranged from photographs of the [girl] nude to photographs for which
the [stranger] specifically directed the [girl] into sexual poses and
activities,” according to the affidavit. The alleged sextortion continued while
the girl was on vacation with her parents, according to the affidavit. The
parents recalled their daughter spending hours at a time in the bathroom while
on the vacation and the girl later confirmed that she was communicating with
the stranger and sending photos during that time.
The girl made numerous attempts to break contact with the
stranger, at which point he would threaten to post her photos online. At one
point when the girl stopped sending photos, the stranger contacted one of her
Instagram friends “demanding the [girl] contact the suspect,” the affidavit
states.
It is not clear how long the alleged sextortion took place, but
Michigan officials contacted Homeland Security Investigations for assistance
within weeks of meeting with the girl’s parents. The crimes alleged in the
affidavit include coercing a minor to engage in sexual activity, which includes
a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years, and receiving or distributing
child pornography, which carries a prison sentence of at least five years. Sextortion
is a growing crime, in part, because of the boom in social media use age among
teenagers and others in recent years.
“We are talking about kids with a lot of privacy and a lot of
technology,” Michelle Collins, vice president of the National Center for
Missing and Exploited Children, told NBC News last year. “And they’re at a
sexually curious age.” Experts say the best advice for parents is to be aware
of who their children are talking to online and through social media sites,
teach children to be wary of strangers who contact them and to contact law
enforcement if anyone tries to solicit their child.
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