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Lawmakers introduced three bills targeting child exploitation last week following a Senate hearing on sextortion.

Sextortion encompasses online blackmail schemes in which offenders manipulate people into sharing explicit images of themselves, then threaten to release the photos unless victims comply with their demands.

Perpetrators of sextortion may demand money or sexual satisfaction. Both types disproportionately harm kids and teens.

Authorities believe financially-motivated sextortion, which primarily effects young men, has caused as many as 40 teen boys to take their own lives. One of the most recent victim, athlete and honor-roll student Bryce Tate, committed suicide on November 6, just three hours after a sextortionist made contact. He was 15 years old.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) fielded more than 2,000 reports of sexually-motivated sextortion by an online terrorist group called “764” in the first nine months of 2025 — double the total number of reports received in 2024.

“This trend has led to the most egregious exploitation that NCMEC has ever seen,” executive director Lauren Coffren told the Senate Judiciary Committee at last week’s hearing on “Protecting Our Children Online Against the Evolving Offender.”

Sextortion scams increased in frequency and severity this year, Coffren and other experts testified at the hearing. But law enforcement officials rarely charge these heinous offenders appropriately.

“Right now, when we charge crimes like sextortion or [764’s crimes], across the country, we all charge them differently,” Jessica Lieber Smolar, a former federal prosecutor, explained.

“There’s no consistency that allows us to properly address the specific harm that these actors are committing.”

Senators Chuck Grassley (IA) and Dick Durbin (IL), chairman and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, respectively, introduced three bills empowering prosecutors to fight sextortion following the hearing.

The Stop Sextortion Act would amend existing laws against possessing and distributing child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to criminalize sextortion, or “threatening to distribute [CSAM] with the intent to intimidate, coerce, extort or cause substantial emotional distress to any person.”

If passed, the act would make sextortion of a minor punishable by up to ten years in prison — double the current penalty.

The “Take It Down Act,” which President Donald Trump signed into law earlier this year, made sextortion of a minor punishable by up to two and a half years in prison. Unlike the Stop Sextortion Act, however, the Take It Down Act criminalized sextortion by amending the Communication Act of 1934. It did not change laws or sentencing guides directly related to CSAM.

The Sentencing Accountability for Exploitation (SAFE) Act would modernize the sentencing guides for engaging in CSAM.

“The current CSAM sentencing guideline doesn’t consider modern aggravating factors, allowing some of the most nefarious child abusers to skate by with lesser sentences,” a press release about the bill explains.

The guide would allow judges to impose harsher penalties based on updated indicators of a particularly dangerous offender, including:

• Whether they belonged to an online group dedicated to CSAM.
• Whether they concealed their identity online.
• Whether they engaged with CSAM on multiple online platforms.
• The length of time they engaged with CSAM.
• The number of children they victimized.

The Ending Coercion of Children and Harm Online (ECCHO) Act would make it a crime to “coerce minors into physically harming themselves, others or animals.” It targets the type of sexually-motivated sextortion, or sadistic online exploitation, committed by offenders like 764.

The FBI describes 764 as a group of “nihilistic violent extremists” which “works to destroy civilized society through the corruption and exploitation of vulnerable populations, which often include minors.”

The group does not engage in financially-motivated sextortion. Instead, members blackmail minors into hurting themselves and others. 764 collects and circulates photos and videos of the abuse as trophies.

“The imagery, the videos, the chats that we are seeing and reading [from 764] are the most graphic that I have ever seen in my 20-year-history,” NCMEC’s Coffren told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The ECCHO Act would make crimes like 764’s punishable by up to 30 years in prison. If a perpetrator caused a minor to kill themselves or someone else, they would face up to life in prison.

As of now, Senators Durbin and Grassley emphasize, “there is no law that explicitly prohibits the coercion of children to hurt themselves or others.”

The Daily Citizen supports laws disincentivizing and punishing child predation. But the proposed bills are a long way from the finish line — and parents must protect their children from sextortion right now.

The most effective way to stymie online predators is to keep your child offline. Parents can delay their child’s introduction to social media by inviting other families to agree to the same boundary. Partnering with others helps parents stay strong and ensures no child feels left out.

Parents with children on social media should make their kids’ accounts private, which means strangers won’t see what they post. Parents should also take advantage of parental controls blocking messages from strangers, if available.

All parents should teach their kids basic internet safety: don’t communicate with someone you don’t know, don’t share information about your identity or location, and never take or share nude images of yourself — ever.

Sextortion poses a threat to every minor with a smartphone or unregulated access to the internet. The Daily Citizen urges parents to take immediate steps to protect their children from this devastating phenomenon.

To learn more about parental controls on social media, visit Focus on the Family’s Plugged In.

Additional Articles and Resources

Plugged In Parent’s Guide to Today’s Technology

President Donald Trump, First Lady Sign ‘Take It Down’ Act

First Lady Supports Bill Targeting Deepfakes, Sextortion and Revenge Porn

Teen Boys Falling Prey to Financial Sextortion — Here’s What Parents Can Do

Meta Takes Steps to Prevent Kids From Sexting

Instagram’s Sextortion Safety Measures — Too Little, Too Late?

‘The Tech Exit’ Helps Families Ditch Addictive Tech — For Good