Introduction
Digital technology and the internet offer significant potential for advancing gender
equality and empowering women and children. Despite these prospects, the continuous expansion of internet and digital connectivity, coupled with the widespread
availability of camera technology and online anonymity, has created an environment conducive to grooming, recruitment, and sexual exploitation with impunity(1).
The prevalence of anonymity and the limited regulation of online service providers
and platforms further enable exploiters to contact potential victims/survivors effortlessly.
In the realm of online sexual exploitation and abuse (OSEA), individuals are targeted
through various technological mechanisms, including live-streaming abuse, online
trafficking, and image-based abuse. Subcategorized within OSEA is online sexual
coercion and extortion (which we will refer to as OSCE), defined as ‘the act of sharing or threatening to share sexual images or information online or through the use of
digital technology.’ Motivations behind these acts vary, ranging from causing
distress to victims/survivors, seeking financial gain, engaging in sexual abuse, and
exploitation(2). Some perpetrators may be driven by malice or a desire for heightened social media attention. Exploring the realm of tech-driven extortion unveils the
adept use of digital tools for online sexual coercion, showcasing the constantly
evolving methods employed by perpetrators(3). This underscores the dynamic
nature of these crimes and accentuates their profound impact on victims/survivors.
Enduring consequences beyond immediate coercion reveal a deep and lasting
emotional toll(4).
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