Internet Contact Blackmailing Local Juvenile Females for Pornography Through Facebook

"We also want to remind parents to take a proactive role in making sure that their children are safe from these kinds of internet predators" - McMinnville Police

(MCMINNVILLE, OR) - Over the course of the last month or so, a local female juvenile was "friended" on Facebook by an unidentified person. At some point the Facebook "friend" convinced the girl to provide some nude pictures of herself. After getting those pictures, the Facebook "friend" is now blackmailing this girl in an effort to obtain more pornographic pictures of her.

On January 30th, we learned that another local female juvenile was contacted on facebook and the nude pictures were shared with this girl who is friends with the original victim. The person then threatened to share her friend's naked pictures globally on Facebook unless this second girl shared some naked pictures of herself back to his facebook account.

If any other families have had similar blackmail attempts to obtain pornographic images of their children, please report it immediately. If it is recent and the information is still available, leave the data as is and let our investigators obtain information from the contact before deleting or otherwise changing the account.

McMinnville Police Department is working aggressively to identify and prosecute the suspect. Anyone with information regarding this investigation is asked to call Detective Sergeant Scott Fessler at 503-435-5616.

We also want to remind parents to take a proactive role in making sure that their children are safe from these kinds of internet predators, as well as other inappropriate internet threats (sexting, cyber bullying, etc). The below listed guidelines are a good start at helping parents work to educate and protect their children from internet predators and threats.

Social Networking Site Safety Tips For Parents

Social networking sites (SNS) such as MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, and Twitter are popular with teens because they give them.

• An easy way to share their lives with their friends and family
• The chance to try on different identities and explore new interests
• A semi-private platform on which to communicate outside of the supervision of adults

Help children use social networking sites safely Social networking sites can have many benefits for children, such as allowing them to explore new interests. Help your children use them more safely by going over the following tips and discussion starters.

• Check your child's friend lists to see who has access to his or her profile. Make sure your child knows all friends in person.
• Teach your child to set profiles to private-but be aware that privacy settings do not guarantee complete privacy.
• Have your child remove any inappropriate content and photos and delete any personal information.
• Check the profiles of your child's friends to see if there is revealing information or photos about your child.
• Report inappropriate or criminal behavior to the appropriate authority. Most sites have a reporting mechanism for non-criminal behavior. Criminal behavior should be reported through law-enforcement agencies and the CyberTipline(R) at www.cybertipline.com.

Discussion Starters

Start a discussion with your child

Use these discussion starters to get an Internet safety conversation going with your children. The more often you talk to them about online safety, the easier it will get, so don't get discouraged if they don't respond immediately!

Could you show me your online profile(s)?

Do you use your real name or age when communicating with others online?

What kinds of things do your post on your page?

How do you decide who to add as a friend?

Would you feel comfortable if I checked your profile? For additional information you can go to WWW.netsmartz.org

News release from McMinnville Police