by Camilla Podini

– Children pornography, pedophilia, rape, prostitution. There terms are used by magazines and television news, even if they’re wrong to describe a spreading dangerous trend: the sextortion.

Sextortion can be divided in other categories: “Grooming” (when adults try to bait children in order to receive sexual pictures and videos) and “Sexting” (exchanges by chats of implicit messages) often converge in “Cyberexploitation”, which means threats and extortions to public on the Internet prey’s intimate files, in order to have money. It is becoming a cheat’s partner, because of Facebook, Skype and dating sites. “I’m dying, I’m dying” Sara says. She’s a 16 years old victim of her ex boyfriend who menaces her to public their old chats, like Alice, victim of a stranger: “He intimidated me saying he would show my friends the hot videos I sent him. I couldn’t sleep. I checked my Facebook page all day long. A moment ago I opened it and I saw my videos on Youtube with my name and surname. My heart skipped a beat. I almost fainted. I’m afraid about my parents and judgements, I’m afraid.” Script keeps repeating, the end is the request of money, but the characters are always different and, according to the Interpol, increasing. Roberto, young victim of abuses who became an extortionist, helps us to understand what pulled him into this whirl: “Interest and desire towards guys in who I could see myself, and I was in search of new experiences and sensations”. Causes which lead adolescents into dangerous traps could be the same: curiosity, transgression and naivety, which can’t let us guess the risks. In reality behind all of this, we disguise fragility, uneasiness and being uncomfortable in our lives. These feelings should be turn into a search of real relationships and motivations, in order to leave behind the risk of dangerous illusions and false promises.