We now know that teenage boys are the predominant victims of Intimite Image Based Sexual Extortion.
In April 2026 a report from the Report Remove service that allows young people to flag and report intimate images of themselves being shared online, said that in the previous 12 months it had received 394 reports of young people being blackmailed over intimate images they had self-generated and sent voluntarily.
Of those, 98% were teenage boys between 14 and 17 years old and one such target of blackmail, 16 year old Murray Dowey from Dunblane took his own life as a result. Blackmailers are actively targeting teen boys, posing as girls online and grooming them to secure intimate images to blackmail them with.
The Molly Rose Foundation, an internet safety charity to demand that tech manufacturers and platform owners should do more to prevent and counteract online sexual image blackmailing – including creating nudity-detection features as standard. MORE
As IBSA (Image Based Sexual Abuse) is a part of the RSHE guidance, it’s vital we ensure both boys and girls learn about the dangers of sending illegal intimate images of themselves to people online…especially to people they don’t actually know in real life.
REMINDER: If you need a speaker to cover misogyny, Coercive Control, masculinities, the dangers of IBSA and sexting as well as boys health and how to reduce violence against women and girls, please get in touch. I have a few dates remaining in the Summer Term.