With summer break beginning for schools across the region, FBI Jacksonville Special Agent in Charge Jason Carley is urging families to stay vigilant and protect children from online predators and exploitation. Though technology continues to advance, there are steps that parents, educators, and children can take to be safe online.
Children often spend more time on the Internet during the summer through social media, gaming and messaging platforms. Offenders may exploit these spaces by posing as someone their age, gaining trust, and later using threats, fear or explicit content to exploit them. Shame and fear frequently prevent victims from reporting the abuse, making awareness and open communication critical.
“Online threats targeting children are increasing at an alarming rate, with crimes like sextortion, cyberbullying and online exploitation causing real-world harm,” said FBI Jacksonville Special Agent in Charge Jason Carley. “As students spend more time online outside of the classroom, parents and guardians should remain engaged in their children’s digital activity and reinforce good online habits.”
Recent trends indicate a serious rise in cybercrimes targeting minors (17 years old or younger), driven by sextortion, cyberbullying, and online grooming. There are also numerous violent online networks that coerce children into engaging in self-harm, animal cruelty and suicidal acts on live stream, sometimes leading to the death of the victim. These networks, often referred to as 764, engage in criminal activity for sexual gratification, social status, a sense of belonging, or for a mix of other reasons. Victims are typically underage females between the ages of 10 and 17 years old, but anyone can be targeted. They often lack a stable support network and may suffer from mental health issues, such as depression, eating disorders, or suicidal ideation. They typically have unfettered access to the Internet, are disconnected, and believe they are communicating with someone their own age.
In 2025, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) received more than 75,000 submissions regarding sextortion and referred more than 5,700 involving minors to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Florida had more than 600 sextortion complaints last year by people under the age of 20.
The following advice can help you keep your children safe.
Advice for Children
- Keep your accounts private.
- Do not accept requests from strangers. Block or ignore messages from strangers.
- Remember that once something is posted or sent, it can never be taken back. Even when something is deleted from social media, there is still a record somewhere in the cloud.
- Be selective about the information and pictures you share online. Know and assume that any content you create online – texts, photos and/or videos – can and will be made public, permanently. Nothing “disappears” online. Once you send something, you have no control over where it goes.
- Understand that people can pretend to be anything/anyone online and that images can be altered or stolen.
- Be suspicious and stop communicating if you meet someone on one app, and they ask you to move to a different platform.
- If you feel overwhelmed or victimized, do not hesitate to ask for help, including that of law enforcement. Do not feel ashamed to report crimes.
Advice for Adults
- Openly communicate with your children about online activity and possible victimization.
- Place limits on internet use.
- Consider shutting down Wi-Fi overnight.
- Know and maintain passwords to phones, tablets, and computers.
- Spot check phones, tablets, and computers and know what apps are being used and what is being downloaded.
- Ensure social media settings are set at the strictest level possible.
- Monitor who is in communication with your child and what is being said.
If you become aware that your child may be a victim, do not attempt to take matters into your own hands and communicate with the predator. Immediately contact the local police, 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or FBI Jacksonville at 904-248-7000. As always, if you have been victimized by cyber fraud of any kind, file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov). You can also find additional resources through NCMEC at missingkids.org/netsmartz/resources.