A stranger terrorized 12-year-old New Yorker, demanding nude photos
'22.02.2018'
Source: NBC New York
Ella, 12, from New York, was harassed online - an unknown man tried to force the girl to send him nude photos on Instagram. Neither the city police nor the Instagram service were able to recognize and punish the criminal.
“I was so scared that I didn't know what to do,” admits now 13-year-old Ella. A man, using fake photos of a young girl for his profile on a social network, turned out to be Ella's friends and subscribers to her personal page, says NBC New York.
The girl was chatting nicely with her new “friend” and nothing indicated the potential danger of communication, until… the “friend” sent her a photograph of a naked male genital organ with a request to send her naked photo in response.
According to the complaint to Instagram, the user account was blocked, but after a couple of months the pursuer appeared under a different name. And Ella made a mistake by allowing him to add as a friend. The man began to intimidate and threaten the girl.
“He said that I have a picture of him, and to be honest, I have to send myself back. I thought I could send a face away - and I did it. But he demanded a photo without clothes ”.
The persecutor threatened to send the police to the school where the girl studied if she did not comply, and convinced her that she could be arrested for keeping his nude photo, although Ella never asked to send her such photos and immediately deleted the picture.
How did the stranger manage to influence her? The girl confesses that she was very scared - she knew that she had done nothing wrong, but the man pressed and threatened. In the end, she was almost ready to send a naked photo out of despair, but first complained to her parents.
“Ella called me and was sobbing hysterically,” her mother says. - She's a child. She didn’t know that it was not illegal to get a nude photo of a person. ”
The girl's mother brought the correspondence to the 24th New York police station, where she looked with the detectives. There she was told that they could not do anything unless this person tried to personally meet with the child. And they sent it ... to Instagram, where they did not help either - they did not give out the user's information to law enforcement officers, did not block his IP address so that he could not continue using the same computer to create new profiles, which made it difficult for the police and the FBI to investigate.
Federal law requires social media companies to report cases of exploitation of children to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which then passes advice to law enforcement agencies, and they, in turn, work with the platform to provide information.
Source familiar with the practice Instagram, reports that the company often blocks user devices and voluntarily informs law enforcement agencies, even if there is no legal obligation. But the source adds that the company reports such cases only after participants misbehave with “several users”.
“I think there is an absolute moral obligation and this company has a lot of power. If this information is there, it should get to the right person to stop these people from doing what they are doing, ”says the girl's mother.
Meanwhile, Ella hopes that her decision to share her painful experience will help raise awareness of the risks of communicating with the pursuers who are still hiding on the Internet.
The New York City Police Department encourages a child or parents to call 911 or visit a local station in case of similar incidents. The FBI asks families to report incidents on tips.fbi.gov or 800-CALL-FBI.
