Sexual extortion, or sextortion, is a form of image-based sexual abuse that includes making threats to share intimate photos or videos of a victim unless they comply with the perpetrator’s behavioral or financial demands.
The research, led by RMIT University in partnership with Google, surveyed over 16,000 adults across Australia, North and Central America, Europe and Asia and found 14.5% of respondents reported being victims of sextortion, while 4.8% admitted to being perpetrators.
LGBTQ+ people, men and younger respondents were more likely to report both victimisation and perpetration.
The most common type of perpetrator was a former or current partner, but men were more likely than women to report being victimised by a colleague or carer.
Victimisation was most common in the US, Australia, Mexico and South Korea, and least common in the European countries surveyed.
Perpetration was most common in South Korea, followed by Australia and the US. It was least common in Belgium, the Netherlands, Poland and Spain.
Despite men being more likely to be perpetrators, the study found they were also slightly more at risk of being victims of sextortion.
Lead researcher and RMIT Professor Nicola Henry said one possible explanation for why men are more likely to report victimisation could be because sextortion scams were more likely to target young men.
“For financial forms of sextortion, scammers trick people into sharing their intimate images, or lead them to believe they have evidence of the victim visiting pornographic sites,” said Henry, from RMIT’s Social Equity Research Centre.
"They then use this evidence to threaten to share intimate images if they don’t comply with their demands, like paying money or sending more intimate images.”
Despite the prevalence of sextortion in the form of financial scams, Henry said sextortion was actually more likely to be perpetrated by an intimate partner.
“This is particularly common in intimate partner abuse where a partner or an ex threatens to share intimate images to coerce the victim into doing or not doing something, such as staying in the relationship, pursuing an intervention order, refusing custody of children, or engaging in an unwanted sexual act,” she said.
LGBTQ+ people were also at a greater risk of falling victim to sextortion, where intimate content might be used as a threat to ‘out’ them due to the stigma surrounding sexuality and sexual freedom of expression.
Co-author and Staff User Experience Researcher at Google, Dr Rebecca Umbach, said there was little existing research into sextortion among adults, with the majority focused on minors or specific locations.
“A lack of standardised large-scale data can hinder our ability to effectively address the issue,” she said.
“Even assuming some amount of under-reporting, our findings indicate that sextortion among adults is actually relatively common and deserves more research and resources.”
