1 in 10 Teens Are Being Blackmailed for Nudes Before They Turn 16.
- Kirra Pendergast
- 3 days ago
- 3 min read
Predators Don’t Wait Until Term 3. So Why Are We?
There are moments in parenting and teaching when we realise what we do next will shape not just the safety of our children, but the culture they’re growing up in.
Right now, we are in one of those moments.
Research just released by the Australian Institute of Criminology in partnership with eSafety confirms what many of us have long feared: more than 1 in 10 Australian adolescents aged 16–18 have been victims of sexual extortion. That number is not hypothetical. It's not hysterical. It's measured. It comes from a landmark survey of nearly 2,000 teenagers who bravely shared their digital lives. And what they told us was confronting:
57.7% of victims were under 16 when it happened.
1 in 3 experienced it more than once.
41.4% were threatened with fake, digitally manipulated images.
64.6% were targeted by strangers online.
Boys were more likely than girls to be extorted—often for money—and significantly less likely to seek help.
This is not a “cybersafety” issue tucked into a Year 9 home room class. This is a full-blown crisis in psychological safety, criminal exploitation, and digital culture. And it’s being met with silence, shame, a once-a-year school assembly or education built for a 2015 internet.
That is no longer enough. It never was.
We Are Up Against a System of Exploitation
Predators follow a simple script, and they weaponise fear. They create shame spirals. And they count on silence from students too scared to speak, from parents unsure how to respond, and from schools unequipped to intervene with confidence.
If we keep relying on outdated models, if our only response is a tick-box cybersafety talk once a year, we are giving predators the conditions they need to thrive. This is exactly why I teamed up with Maggie, Brad and Madeleine to create CTRL+SHFT. To do more.
What Needs to Happen Next
Hardwire the Safety Sequence
Every student, every year, should know this phrase like a CPR drill:
Collect evidence. Block. Don’t pay. Disclose without fear – you are not going to be in trouble.
This is the counterattack. It breaks the predator’s grip. It replaces secrecy with action.
Target Boys with Truth, Not Shame
The research tells us that:
41.5% of boys surveyed had been targeted in the past year.
They are 74% more likely to be abused by a stranger.
They are often threatened with financial blackmail not just image demands.
Change the Script at Home and in School
Forget scare tactics. We need compassion, clarity, and repetition.
Every child should hear:
“If anyone threatens you, it’s not your fault.”
“You are not in trouble.”
“We will handle this together.”
Equip parents with scripts. Equip schools with escalation guides. Our resources can help you when you partner with CTRL+SHFT
Sexual extortion isn’t a phase of growing up online. It is abuse, manipulation, and in far too many cases, it leads to long-term trauma or suicide.
This is preventable. But only if we stop treating this like a niche concern or a one-off conversation. Safety is not a subject. It’s a system.
We need to change how we speak at the dinner table, how we train teachers, and how we design schools. We need to move from awareness to action. From a once a year checkbox to culture.
To every parent, educator, principal, or wellbeing lead reading this:
One conversation is not enough.One school assembly is not enough.One warning is not enough.
But one clear message, one trusted adult,one brave disclosure repeated often enough can stop a predator in their tracks.
Let’s make sure every adult is ready to respond when they do.
If you are a school or a business and want to know where to start? Book up to 30 minutes with me, and I’ll show you the first three steps to building a system that actually has impact.
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