A global network of violent predators is hiding in plain sight, targeting children on major platforms, grooming them, and extorting them to commit horrific acts of abuse.

  • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    9 months ago

    Some snippets from the article:

    Cadenhead then started a Discord server called “764,” after the first three digits of [his] zip code … sentenced to 80 years in prison. Now 18 years old, he is currently incarcerated

    “How-to” guides on sexually exploiting and extorting minors online were circulated in their channels.

    Thomas-Gabriel Rüdiger, head of the Institute for Cyber Criminology at the Brandenburg Police University, assumes that most offenders feel safe online. "Particularly in a global context, the pressure by law enforcement on the internet can only be considered very low,” he says. This remains true, he says, “even if individual groups are repeatedly taken down.”

    Eve’s mother recounted her daughter being drawn into the exploitation network through “gore” servers on Discord, where children would watch ultra-violent content. “What 764 would do is they would go in and drop videos in these groups and try to start pulling kids out of that to their server,” she says.

    Victims who provided CSAM and self-harm videos were rewarded with attention and praise from the extortion group. In turn, the members who are able to coerce more material from their victims gain status within the group. "The more content they provide, the higher they are in their hierarchy,” says Anna, a young Western European woman who was groomed by 764.

    Whenever she resisted his requests to produce “content,” Riley would threaten to send her prior images of self-harm to her parents.

    To me the most insidious part of this is how it’s organized and systematic. They’re figuring out the most effective ways to manipulate and victimize people, teaching and gamifying it.

    • FilthyHookerSpit@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      This happened to my adult partner. She was playing OW and someone in that lobby started PMing her for nudes, threatening to disconnect out internet. They ended up ddosing us. Then they were saying how they wouldnt turn it back on without nudes or they would tell her “parents”.

      Most likely they got our IP when she went into a lobby and targeted due to the feminine handle. All I could think after changing IPs was “this guy must be doing this to children”. But this was a few years ago before OW2 was a thing.

      • chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        9 months ago

        Same tbh, years ago happened to my girlfriend at the time basically like you describe, ddos our internet, demand nudes. Though I think a lot of that sort of sextortion isn’t necessarily on the level of “funnel into a torture cult” described in the article, and a lot of the people doing this are teenage boys acting alone.