Video Transcript

In the last year or two, we have really had a large number of complaints coming into the Bureau regarding sextortion. You have a young man ages 14 to 17 that goes online, meets a pretty girl, thinks it's a teenager or someone slightly older than them. They end up in a sexual conversation and nudes are exchanged and then threats are immediately made to where that teenager now thinks their life is going to be ruined.

Their mom’s going to see their dad’s going to see it, girls at school, the entire school. And they think that their life is over. The majority of those teenagers deal with it by themselves or they tell a trusted adult. But there have been multiple occasions where these teenagers took their own lives. And because of that, the Bureau has looked at this as a whole and made an effort to get to the bottom of the fraud and the blackmail, which is why we're here in Nigeria.

Teenagers meet other people online. And what adults tell them are strangers, it's not the same. Like, teenagers don't think they're strangers. If they engage in a conversation with someone once, the next time they talk to him, they don't think of that person as a stranger anymore.

And if that person sends a photo or sends a video, that adds to their credibility. And so I want teenagers to know that just because someone sends you a picture or sends you a video doesn't mean that they're real or that that's really them. I think that's a big danger. We also talk about never being able to get your photos back or never being able to get your videos back.

So if you make a mistake and you send something explicit or nude or something that would embarrass you for everyone to see, the emotions run so high in that moment. I want to tell all of them to give yourself time to walk away from it, because once those emotions come down, it is a big deal. But it's not that big of a deal. It's not worth your life.