"Sextortion"

You might or might not be familiar with this new portmanteau.  You are most definitely familiar with "social" media.

A growing avalanche of criticism, or at least concern, has been written about "social" media.  Its come-on is that it's social, but it's really antisocial, and it has a number of problematic consequences.  We're talking here about facebook, Instagram, Twitter/nuTwitter/X, Tik Tok, and probably some others.  The "dating" apps are another kind of problem.  The conclusion is that all of them are stress-provoking, burdensome, cause problematic efforts to adapt to whatever is promoted as the preferred style and configuration of features, and at worst, lead to more or less diagnosable problems and even suicides.

"Sextortion" is an example of this problem.  It involves frankly seducing someone to provide compromising photographs of him- or herself, then blackmailing the person by threatening to make these photographs public, or else...

The easy answer is not to take and transmit compromising photographs of yourself, so you have no "exposure."  It's a good idea, and it ranks with other advice about never doing anything wrong or imperfect, and not making any mistakes.  Even if you're young.  The most recent petition I've seen was about a 17 year old boy who killed himself because of whatever shame he anticipated might result from the "sextortion."  Something tells me the person who "sextorted" this boy did not confirm that the victim was underage.  Something tells me the "sextortionist" didn't care, or preferred that the victim be young and easier to manipulate.

"Sextortion" is a focused problem, but there's a bigger problem.  It is increasingly acknowledged that "social" media is a problem, and it creates problems.  It consumes time and attention, suggests imagery, like physique, that the viewer is at pains to emulate, is highly corruptible, and encourages people to buy things that are either too expensive or faulty, and for which it's essentially impossible to get a refund.  There's an increasing suicide rate, mostly among minors, caused by the toxic wake of "social" media.  "Sextortion" is only one of the specific mechanisms leading minors to paint themselves into that corner.

And "social" media make money, for themselves.  Unless it's Elon Musk fucking up yet another enterprise, they make a lot of money.  If the public are the victims, or the stooges, the "social" media companies are most certainly not.

Years ago, the high school I attended planned a reunion.  I don't remember if it was the 40th or the 45th.  The organizers chose to communicate with everyone via Classmates.com.  I still receive Classmates e-mails, and there's no way to unsubscribe.  When I was more naive about it, I had a facebook page.  It was not at all easy to deactivate that account.  These companies make advertising money by claiming a circulation or membership.  They're not going to help you disengage.

So, as seemingly direct it is to try to prosecute whoever "sextorted" a given person (who might well now be dead from suicide, and whom his or her family can't have back), it's a lot more complicated to dismantle the "social" media companies.  But they're the bigger problem.  If you think they're your friends, I encourage you to stop kidding yourselves.