On October 12, 2023, Ryan Cleland and Nicola Smith of Prince George, faced a parent’s worst nightmare, the suicide of their 12 year old son, Carson.
Carson was targeted by a predator online, just one of a growing number of boys who find themselves desperate for help to deal with what is being called ‘sextortion,’ online sexual exploitation and extortion for profit.
Carson was targeted through Snapchat, one of many ways that predators access children online.
Victims are reached through social media platforms, direct messaging services, as well as seemingly benign game applications, like Roblox and Minecraft, that offer opportunities for in-game chat between players.
Children may already be active on platforms that offer a window of access to predators, such as Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, TikTok and others.
The method used is simple. Young people are befriended by someone who presents themselves as a peer, another young person playing a game, or making friends online.
Most often, the predator presents themselves as a person of the opposite sex, feigning romantic or sexual interest in the victim. In a world where online dating is a common way to meet a partner, this seems normal to many young people.
Once trust is gained, the predator may ask for explicit photos. With most young people owning smart phones, it is very easy to take and send a selfie, with the thought that it is a private message sent to a trusted potential girlfriend or boyfriend.
What happens next is devastating to a young person, when the trust they placed in someone they thought they knew is betrayed and their online friend is revealed as a predator. Messages become menacing, with threats of exposure to friends and family, and the larger community, by making the explicit photos public. The victim feels isolated and unable to ask for help.
There are different ways of exploiting the victim. They may continue to be sexually exploited, with the perpetrator asking for more and more explicit photos or videos. Another common method of exploitation is financial, with the perpetrator asking for
money, often hundreds or thousands of dollars and there may be pressure to continue to pay, even when the victim has paid the original amount.
The truly effective weapon used to exploit is the shame and emotional distress felt by the victims.
Susan Patterson, director of an anti-trafficking ministry called Through God’s Grace states, “For young Christian men especially, the thought of others discovering that they were deceived into sharing intimate photos is unbearable. The fear of losing respect from their peers, their families or their church communities can become overwhelming.”
Sometimes that shame and guilt may cause victims to self-harm, and in extreme cases like that of Carson Cleland, to commit suicide.
Unfortunately, this is a growing crime. Thorn, an organization that fights against child sex abuse, reports a huge increase in cases of sextortion, with their research showing that one in five teens faced sextortion and one in seven of those victims reported self-harming as a result.
Boys and young men are particularly vulnerable, as they are just learning to navigate relationships with girls, as well as their own feelings. The Canadian Centre for Child Protection collected data in 2025, showing that 78 percent of cybertip reports of sextortion in Canada were of boys under the age of 18.
Parents may feel overwhelmed by the technology used and the many ways that their children may be targeted, but there is help available to guide parents and children through the minefield of navigating online platforms.
Through God’s Grace offers resources for both parents and children. Parents will be interested to watch a five-minute awareness video with real-life examples of cases of sextortion, titled, ‘How We Protect Children from the Fastest Growing Form of Cyber Exploitation.’
Young people would benefit from exploring an interactive game, No Escape Room, that helps them think critically about their online experiences, and the choices they make in their interactions with others. The game is a powerful recreation of a young person’s online experience, with every decision affecting the direction the interaction takes. It would make a good addition to a meeting of a parish youth group.
As always, parents must remain aware of the dangers and of what applications and online platforms their children are using. Communication and education about possible predators and how to keep safe is essential. Children must feel safe and comfortable talking to their parents about any online danger they may face. Open lines of communication reduce the risk of a child feeling isolated and unable to ask for help.
While parents bear responsibility for monitoring their children’s internet use, our government is also taking action to protect young people, introducing Bill C-34, the Safe Social Media Act, which introduces safety requirements for social media and AI chatbot services.
This proposed legislation restricts the access of children under the age of 16 from social media and aims to reduce children’s exposure to certain content and high-risk interactions. The bill requires social media service providers to remove content that sexually victimizes a child, holding social media sites accountable for abuse that occurs on their platforms.
With the support of all Canadians, this bill will help parents to keep their children safe.
Barbara Renaud has been a member of Catholic Women’s League since 2002 and has authored two resolutions addressing sexual exploitation of women and young persons. She is a member of the Anti-Human Trafficking Committee of the Archdiocese of Vancouver and vice chair of VCASE, a organization advocating for an end to sexual exploitation caused by prostitution and trafficking.