With regard to the Bezos story, something important to add to the sex talks we have with our kids:
a warning about sextortion.
Now that the majority of even middle schoolers have smart phones with cameras, it turns out that young people are at the greatest risk of sextortion -- and the least equipped to know how to handle it. Pornographers in distant cities, even thousands of miles away, can entrap children into carrying out sex acts on camera, or risk being exposed by the adult online.
The other thing parents can and should do, when they give them their phones, is make sure they are set up as securely as possible, with 2 factor identification. That won't protect them from everything, but it will be of some help.
And as a general matter, not just with regard to this particular topic, parents should make sure their kids know that the most important thing ALWAYS, if they realize they've made any serious mistake, is to let you know so you can help. Make sure they know not to be afraid of YOU, if they ever find themselves in a horrible mess. You will be their ally always. No matter what.
The kids who ARE afraid of their parents are the ones most likely to find themselves enslaved to a pornographer thousands of miles away. . . .
https://www.lawfareblog.com/jeff-bezos-accuses-national-enquirer-sextortion?fbclid=IwAR1TGE-dN5n7DHWek-Dl-K456ZE4SkiMl4Mo21PyAToxXyYsxC0zAwHsjGk
Benjamin Wittes and I, along with other Lawfare writers, have published over the years on the phenomenon of “sextortion”—sexual violence that takes place over the internet, usually when the perpetrator obtains explicit images of a victim and uses that material to obtain money or further sexual images. Most sextortion cases we’ve covered have involved victims who were relatively unknown. There are a few exceptions—a former Miss Teen USA, for example.
SNIP
Wittes and I, along with Cody Poplin and Clara Spera, produced a Brookings Institution report on sextortion in 2016, and Wittes interviewed Mona Sedky—a computer crimes prosecutor who focuses on sextortion cases—on the Lawfare Podcast. Much of what we said then remains true now: sextortion is understudied; it’s suprisingly common; and it’s a brutal form of abuse. Some victims commit suicide. Those who suffer from sextortion are not usually those who have money and power; they are, by and large, vulnerable children and teenagers who are scared and don’t know where to turn. For this reason, as Wittes identified, Bezos’s decision to come forward with AMI’s threat is actually quite a powerful statement.
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