SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WXYZ) — Since her son took his life after being a victim of a "sextortion" scam, Jennifer Buta is dedicating her time to sharing his story and educating people about the dangerous crime.
"They reached out on Instagram on a direct message,” Buta said.
They did their research on her son Jordan DeMay and got him to send explicit photos and blackmailed him for money.
"All of his assets that were out there on social media, that is what they used against him to send him spiraling down this hole where he thought that there was was no way out of it,” DeMay said.
The sextortion scheme led to the imprisonment of two Nigerian brothers who federal investigators accuse of targeting more than 100 victims who were both minors and adults.
His story is one that reflects a trend the FBI says is becoming increasingly more alarming.
Watch our previous coverage of the two Nigerian brothers tied to DeMay's case below:
It's why Meta launched a new campaign on Instagram, informed by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and Thorn, to help teens spot sextortion scams and help parents support their teens in avoiding these scams.
They include:
- Partnering with creators to raise awareness of our campaign and make sure teens know "sextortion" is never their fault.
- Hiding follower and following lists from potential "sextortion" scammers
- Preventing screenshots of certain images in direct messages
- Nudity protection feature
“This is a campaign to educate parents and adults about what financial extortion is, so you can avoid it, how to spot it early and what to do about it,” said Ravi Sinha, head of Child Safety Policy at Meta.
He says with this campaign, the focus is on highlighting the importance of education, so that the important conversations can happen.
“One of the things that extortion scammers rely on is the shame and embarrassment that teens may feel about having shared an intimate image, so I think it's important for parents to create a safe space for teens to come and talk to you when something comes up whether that’s in real life or whether that’s online," Sinha said.
For years, parents have pressured social media platforms to step up safety measures to protect their children.
NCMEC and the FBI have reported a dramatic rise in sextortion scams taking a toll on children and teens.
When asked about the timing, Sinha said it's something they've worked hard on for a while.
"We’ve been working on this problem for years and we’ve released dozens of safety features and educational efforts, but I this is a really key moment to pair a lot of the safety features that we’ve released on our own platforms with just educating teens and parents more about this issue,” Sinha said.
Buta says the biggest factor for her will be social media platforms holding perpetrators accountable, and she will continue to advocate for education.
“I think knowledge is power and normalizing a conversation between parents and kids about what’s happening is our greatest prevention of this happening to another child,” Buta said. “I think that is our first step is the information. I get so much feedback from parents who didn’t know that this was going on and went and had a conversation with their children about it.”
It's something she's dedicated her time to in her son's honor.
“I will continue to advocate for change on the legislative side, I will continue to share Jordan’s story and I will continue to do that as long as it takes,” Buta said.
