A study published in the Victims and Offender’s Journal in the US has discovered a surprising result in relation to ‘sextortion’.
It found that men (4.5%) were twice as likely to be victims of ‘sextortion’ than women (2.3%). Sextortion is the practise of blackmailing someone with nude or sexually explicit photos to do something, under threat of releasing or publicly exposing the photos. The result came as a surprise because it’s women who are largely the victims of real world sexual violence and harm.
Rates of sextortion skyrocketted during worldwide lockdowns as people took to watching porn and online dating to relieve boredom and loneliness.
One of the researchers involved in the study, Asia Eaton thinks the results could be due to the fact that men had more time to spend online during the pandemic and were less ‘picky’ about who they hooked up with.
Sextortion was also rife among the LGBT community, with rates three times higher than those of ‘straight’ folks.
