Victim of sexual extortion: ‘Go to the police’

NOS

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 22:45

Young people who are confronted with sexual extortion often do not sound the alarm out of shame, says the Public Prosecution Service. Shame also played a role for B. (name known to the editors), who was extorted three years ago. She was then 14 years old.

B. was blackmailed with nude images. Threatened to post the images on Telegram, including her address and other personal information. The girl advises young people who are experiencing the same thing to share their experiences with someone they trust, despite feelings of shame and fear. “And go to the police sooner, keeping it to yourself is not always the way out.”

Yesterday it was announced that a 24-year-old man from Etten-Leur is suspected of extorting more than a hundred underage girls, whom he seduced into sending nude photos.

Since yesterday, five new reports have been received by the police. This kind of case occurs more often than people think, says a spokesperson for the Public Prosecution Service: “The phenomenon is fairly new and not always reported, for example out of shame.”

B. anonymously told NOS her story:

Victim of sextortion tells her story

The telephone at HelpWanted, the organization where young people can go for advice about online sexual abuse, has been ringing since yesterday.

Many of these young people do not report to the police: “It is very difficult when you are 12 or 13 to think for yourself that you are going to the police with something like this. Yet it is wiser to do so,” says Arda Gerkens of HelpWanted.

She also mentions shame as a reason for young people not to go to the police: “Those victims think, I did it wrong myself, why should the police help me? That is of course not true. You have done nothing wrong, what a mistake is is what that man has done.”

Gerkens appeals, among other things, to young people who may not be able to talk to their parents about it. “If this happens to you, you can always chat with us at HelpWanted. Then we’ll see what you can do best together.”

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