Netsafe’s chief online safety officer, Sean Lyons, said young people in such cases often tried to deal with it alone, but parents should make it clear they would not judge.
“It’s good to make a plan as a family, tell them ‘I don’t care how you got here ... if you’re in trouble this is what we do as a family, this is how we’ll handle it, you can come to us, you can talk to us, if it’s too embarrassing to talk to us directly here’s the person in the family, or the family friend that you can go to.’”
ECPAT (End Child Prostitution, Pornography and Trafficking) New Zealand director Eleanor Parkes said the sheer number of McCartney’s victims was “really scary”, but that his approach - such as using templates to be able to reply to his victims at speed - was increasingly common.
“You get the sense that, for a lot of them, this isn’t something they’ve only done once, it might not be something they’re new to.
“They know exactly what to say, how to get those young children completely panicked that their reputation is ruined and their life is over, with these photos out in the public domain with their friends and family seeing them.”
Parkes said it was unlikely that young people would ever stop sending nude photos.
“It’s just what they use the internet for ... so it’s really about people knowing how to respond to [blackmailing] and making sure they can go to parents, get that support, go to the police, come to an organisation like ECPAT or Netsafe, who can support them through the next steps.”
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