Stop sextortion – educators
You play an important role in students’ lives. As new threats emerge, it is important to stay ahead of the trends. Here are a few things you can do to help your students avoid getting into situations like sextortion.
Your next steps: Learn more and talk about it.
Decide how you will handle disclosures.
As a trusted adult, students may come to you if they have a problem related to sextortion. Before these situations rise, make sure you understand the laws and your school policies around reporting. The first priority is always to keep students safe, and that can require different actions depending on the situation.
Talk to students about online safety.
Tell them the common ways sextortion happens — use Thorn's "Stop Sextortion" video to start the conversation. To help students understand how sextortion happens and the severe consequences and barriers to disclosure, make sure that you explain mandatory reporting laws in your state or country so that when a student shares their experiences, they are not surprised by the outcomes.
Pro-tip: Talk with other educators about online safety. You’ve just learned a lot of information that would be valuable for other teachers to understand. Plus, the more consistently educators respond to these issues, the less confused students will be.
Keep up to date with tech trends.
Find out what technology your students use. Ask them what’s cool or new, and why they like it. The more common these conversations are when there is no abuse happening, the easier it will be to understand when something is wrong, and the easier it will be for students to share what’s happening.
