News

“World lost a good person:” Parents warn of global sextortion targeting teens

Published

2 years ago

June 20, 2022

PILOT MOUND, Man. — Daniel Lints was kind and responsible with a witty sense of humour. The rural Manitoba teenager had a bright future and loving family. He played hockey and was a constant visitor to the nearby community pool.

He was a normal and happy 17-year-old until one chilly February day, he accepted a message request from what appeared to be an attractive young woman on Snapchat.

She coerced him into sending an explicit image. In minutes he was being blackmailed and within three hours he took his own life.

“I feel like he was murdered,” says Derek Lints, Daniel’s father, as tears stream down his cheeks.

Lints and his wife Jill say they are dealing with unimaginable tragedy. Daniel, whom most people called Danny, was the victim of a growing global sextortion scheme that is largely targeting teenage boys.

“I know Danny would have made a difference in this world,” Jill Lints says as she sits at the family’s kitchen table in Pilot Mound, Man., 180 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg. “He would have done good things and he already did do good things.

“The world lost a good person.”

Policing agencies around the world have been sending out urgent warnings about sextortion against boys.

The ruse is sophisticated, says Stephen Sauer, director of Cybertip.ca at the Canadian Centre for Child Protection. Organized crime rings based overseas pose as young women on social media platforms that teenagers use like Snapchat and Instagram.

They reach out to teens and give them sexual attention quickly. Users take advantage of the young boys’ level of development and impulsiveness, and hastily ask for an image or a video, Sauer says.

Then the threats begin.

Sauer says the anonymous users, knowing there will be a sense of shame, say they will send the images to family and friends if the teens don’t give them money.

“Young people specifically are pretty vulnerable to this.” he says. “They are still developing their sense of self. They are still developing their identity and often they are engaging in sexual exploration.”

Many of the teenagers — like Danny — empty their bank accounts. But, too often, when the blackmail continues, they take their own lives.

The RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Crime Centre received a total of 52,306 complaints for the year 2020-21 — a 510 per cent increase from seven years earlier. Experts have pointed to increasing online activity during the pandemic as a contributing factor.

Cybertip, Canada’s tip line for reporting online child sexual abuse, had an average of 20 reports a month for this type of sexploitation in 2021. It shot up to 55 a month this year and increased further to 75 reports in May.

Mounties from coast to coast have put out warnings. Calgary police cautioned earlier this month that they’ve had nearly 50 cases in that city alone since the year began. “We believe these crimes are vastly under-reported,” Staff Sgt. Graeme Smiley said.

Police are telling parents to talk with their kids about online risks. RCMP say any sexploitation victim should stop communication with the instigator and notify a trusted adult, Cybertip or police.

Danny’s parents say at least two other boys in their small Manitoba community were targeted in the months since their son’s death.

Pilot Mound, with a population of just over 600, was the ideal place to raise their son and two daughters, they say. People look out for each other and there’s a sense of safety.

They never expected a threat from across the world would slip in through social media.

Daniel was calm and contented. He worked hard and bought his first mobile tablet with his own savings to play games with friends. Derek Lints talked to his son about staying safe online.

As Daniel grew older, he was given more freedom online. He told his family about a presentation at school about Amanda Todd, who took her own life at age 15 in 2012 after years of online sextortion. A Dutch citizen is on trial in British Columbia and has pleaded not guilty to five charges, including criminal harassment and communication with a young person to commit a sexual offence.

One in three internet users in the world is a child — one in five in Canada. Many countries are pressuring social media companies to ensure platforms are safe for that demographic.

The European Union recently agreed on landmark regulation for tech giants. Australia and New Zealand are moving in the same direction.

Canada has created an online safety advisory council to form a regulatory framework to address harmful content online.

Sauer says social media platforms have a responsibility to keep kids safe. There’s much more they could do, he says.

“There seems to be a lack of will and a lack of pressure and obviously a lack of regulation in this space.”

More than 10 years after Todd’s death, the Lintses are frustrated that children are still endangered. They want every parent and teenager to be aware of sextortion scams. They want pressure on social media companies to keep children safe.

“This is our way of fighting back against these predators that stole Danny from us. This is what we can do right now,” Jill Lints says.

“We can tell everybody.”

Where to get help

Visit Canada’s national cyber tip line Cybertip.ca to report online sexual abuse/exploitation, the non-consensual distribution of intimate images or other forms of online victimization of children.

If you know about a child who is in immediate danger or risk, call 911 or your local police.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 19, 2022.

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press

News

Langford, Heim lead Rangers to wild 13-8 win over Blue Jays

Published

51 mins ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Rookie Wyatt Langford homered, doubled twice and became the first Texas player this season to reach base five times, struggling Jonah Heim delivered a two-run single to break a sixth-inning tie and the Rangers beat the Toronto Blue Jays 13-8 on Tuesday night.

Leody Taveras also had a homer among his three hits for the Rangers.

Langford, who also walked twice, has 12 homers and 25 doubles this season. He is hitting .345 in September.

“I think it’s really important to finish on a strong note,” Langford said. “I’m just going to keep trying to do that.”

Heim was 1-for-34 in September before he lined a single to right field off Tommy Nance (0-2) to score Adolis García and Nathaniel Lowe, giving Texas a 9-7 lead. Heim went to the plate hitting .212 with 53 RBIs after being voted an All-Star starter last season with a career-best 95 RBIs. He added a double in the eighth ahead of Taveras’ homer during a three-run inning.

Texas had 13 hits and left 13 men on. It was the Rangers’ highest-scoring game since a 15-8 win at Oakland on May 7.

Matt Festa (5-1) pitched 1 1/3 scoreless innings to earn the win, giving him a 5-0 record in 13 appearances with the Rangers after being granted free agency by the New York Mets on July 7.

Nathan Eovaldi, a star of Texas’ 2023 run to the franchise’s first World Series championship, had his worst start of the year in what could have been his final home start with the Rangers. Eovaldi, who will be a free agent next season, allowed 11 hits (the most of his two seasons with Texas) and seven runs (tied for the most).

“I felt like early in the game they just had a few hits that found the holes, a few first-pitch base hits,” said Eovaldi, who is vested for a $20 million player option with Texas for 2025. “I think at the end of the day I just need to do a better job of executing my pitches.”

Eovaldi took a 7-3 lead into the fifth inning after the Rangers scored five unearned runs in the fourth. The Jays then scored four runs to knock out Eovaldi after 4 2/3 innings.

Six of the seven runs scored against Toronto starter Chris Bassitt in 3 2/3 innings were unearned. Bassitt had a throwing error during Texas’ two-run third inning.

“We didn’t help ourselves defensively, taking care of the ball to secure some outs,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said.

The Blue Jays’ Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had a double and two singles, his most hits in a game since having four on Sept. 3. Guerrero is hitting .384 since the All-Star break.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Blue Jays: SS Bo Bichette (calf) was activated and played for the first time since July 19, going 2 for 5 with an RBI. … OF Daulton Varsho (shoulder) was placed on the 10-day injured list and will have rotator cuff surgery … INF Will Wagner (knee inflammation) was placed on the 60-day list.

UP NEXT

Rangers: LHP Chad Bradford (5-3, 3.97 ERA) will pitch Wednesday night’s game on extended five days’ rest after allowing career highs in hits (nine), runs (eight) and home runs (three) in 3 2/3 innings losing at Arizona on Sept. 14.

Blue Jays: RHP Bowden Francis (8-4, 3.50) has had two no-hitters get away in the ninth inning this season, including in his previous start against the New York Mets on Sept. 11. Francis is the first major-leaguer to have that happen since Rangers Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in 1989.

—

AP MLB:

Source link

News

Billie Jean King set to earn another honor with the Congressional Gold Medal

Published

2 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Billie Jean King will become the first individual female athlete to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania and Mikie Sherrill of New Jersey announced Tuesday that their bipartisan legislation had passed the House of Representatives and would be sent to President Joe Biden for his signature.

The bill to honor King, the tennis Hall of Famer and activist, had already passed unanimously in the Senate.

Sherrill, a Democrat, said in a statement that King’s “lifetime of advocacy and hard work changed the landscape for women and girls on the court, in the classroom, and the workplace.”

The bill was introduced last September on the 50th anniversary of King’s victory over Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes,” still the most-watched tennis match of all-time. The medal, awarded by Congress for distinguished achievements and contributions to society, has previously been given to athletes including baseball players Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente, and golfers Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson and Arnold Palmer.

King had already been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Fitzpatrick, a Republican, says she has “broken barriers, led uncharted paths, and inspired countless people to stand proudly with courage and conviction in the fight for what is right.”

___

AP tennis:

Source link

News

Account tweaks for young Instagram users ‘minimum’ expected by B.C., David Eby says

Published

2 hours ago

September 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

SURREY, B.C. – Premier David Eby says new account control measures for young Instagram users introduced Tuesday by social media giant Meta are the “minimum” expected of tech companies to keep kids safe online.

The parent company of Instagram says users in Canada and elsewhere under 18 will have their accounts set to private by default starting Tuesday, restricting who can send messages, among other parental controls and settings.

Speaking at an unrelated event Tuesday, Eby says the province began talks with social media companies after threatening legislation that would put big tech companies on the hook for “significant potential damages” if they were found negligent in failing to keep kids safe from online predators.

Eby says the case of Carson Cleland, a 12-year-old from Prince George, B.C., who took his own life last year after being targeted by a predator on Snapchat, was “horrific and totally preventable.”

He says social media apps are “nothing special,” and should be held to the same child safety standards as anyone who operates a place that invites young people, whether it’s an amusement park, a playground or an online platform.

In a progress report released Tuesday about the province’s engagement with big tech companies including Google, Meta, TikTok, Spapchat and X, formerly known as Twitter, the provincial government says the companies are implementing changes, including a “trusted flagger” option to quickly remove intimate images.

— With files from The Associated Press

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024

Source link