Kids are facing a rise of ‘sextortion’ crimes on Snapchat

There is a crime trend that parents and their kids need to talk about: ‘sextortion.’

Sitting in the Lee County Jail Tuesday night is Devery Thomas Moses, 27. Fort Myers police arrested the suspect on a warrant out of Wisconsin.

According to a newspaper in Wisconsin, Moses was wanted for getting teenage girls to send him explicit pictures and videos through Snapchat. The suspect threatened to tell what they were doing if the victims did not send more.

“More often than not they give them more because they’re afraid not to,” said Dr. Laura Streyffeller, a psychologist. “They don’t want to get in trouble for what they did.”

Streyffeller, a mental health expert, said young people are often targets because of their inexperience with relationships. She said parents need to understand ‘sexting’ is the new norm for the younger generation.

“Young people a lot of time, don’t have the life experience,” Streyffeller said. “Don’t really know what dating looks like and what courting looks like.”

Moses’ method of suspected crime is similar to other cases in Southwest Florida.

In April, WINK News reported about Jorge Ingunza Jr. Investigators said he hacked into dozens of teenagers’ Snapchat accounts, downloaded their nude photos and threatened to post them if they did not send him more.

That same week investigators charged Ingunza, a mother reported to Cape Coral Police Department a similar incident was happening to her child’s Snapchat account.

“The social media sites are usually pretty good if you report and they have spotters,” Streyffeller said. “But, the truth is there’s a whole lot of stuff that goes on social media and they don’t catch everything.”