OPINION:
One night nearly a year ago, Marilyn Davidson’s worst nightmare as a mother came true at the dinner table.
Like most other parents, Marilyn had taught her son about the dangers he might encounter as he grew up, including drugs, alcohol, strangers and unsafe situations.
Still, there was one threat she could not prepare him for: when the danger did not need to be in the same room as him to do him harm.
That night, her teenage son was communicating with someone who was manipulating and exploiting him. By the time Marilyn learned what was happening, someone was using an image of her son to threaten and extort him.
She was sitting across the table from her child, believing he was safe, while a predator was already there — digitally.
Marilyn’s experience illustrates a growing reality for parents: Being physically present with your child does not mean you can see the dangers they face behind a screen.
Sextortion — the coercion of a minor into creating or sending sexually explicit images or videos, often through threats to expose or distribute that material — can happen anywhere a child has internet access.
Predators may pose as peers or someone a child trusts, then build a relationship, obtain an image and use threats to demand more images or money.
For one of the authors of this column (Brett Tolman), that reality is particularly striking. As a former U.S. attorney for Utah, some of his proudest work was prosecuting the man who entered Elizabeth Smart’s home and kidnapped and victimized a teenage girl.
That case represented the kind of threat that parents have long been taught to fear: a predator walking right into a child’s world.
Today, a predator can reach a child from thousands of miles away, through the device that the child carries in his or her pocket.
The consequences are devastating. In 2024, the FBI received nearly 55,000 reports of sextortion and extortion crimes, a 59% increase from the previous year, with $33.5 million in reported financial losses.
From October 2021 to March 2023, an estimated 12,600 sextortion victims — primarily boys ages 14 to 17 — were identified, with at least 20 suicides linked to the cases.
This is not as simple as young people making bad choices online. It is a sophisticated criminal exploitation of children. Technology has evolved faster than the laws designed to protect our children, and it is time for Congress to close the gap.
Parents should not have to become cybersecurity experts to protect their children, nor should children have to navigate increasingly sophisticated threats from predators while the laws designed to protect them fail to keep pace.
Federal law already criminalizes numerous forms of child exploitation, but technology has changed things. When statutes do not clearly address emerging forms of coercion, prosecutors can face unnecessary uncertainty, and victims can be left without the full protection they deserve.
The James T. Woods Act — which passed the Senate Judiciary Committee and has been attached to the National Defense Authorization Act — is sponsored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley and ranking member Richard J. Durbin, and would strengthen federal law addressing sextortion and the coercion of children. It would modernize federal sentencing laws and provide prosecutors and law enforcement with clearer tools to hold offenders accountable.
Congress should also ensure that federal law clearly defines sextortion and recognizes coercion and threats as central elements of the crime. Penalties should reflect the seriousness of exploiting minors, including repeated coercion, multiple victims, extensive distribution and the severity of threats.
Congress should also provide the framework necessary for the U.S. Sentencing Commission to ensure that federal sentencing guidelines reflect the modern threat.
Legislation alone will not solve this problem. Parents, schools and communities all have roles. Children must know that online predators may impersonate people they trust and that they should tell an adult when someone threatens or pressures them.
Parents must create an environment where children can come forward without fear of punishment. Victims need safe reporting mechanisms, counseling and support.
Above all, victims need reassurance that the responsibility is on the predator, not the child.
Marilyn learned that lesson sitting across from her son at dinner. Brett learned it through years of prosecuting criminals who preyed on children.
Both of their experiences point to the same conclusion: The methods of predators may change, but our duty to protect children does not.
Congress has an opportunity to make clear that exploiting a child online is every bit as serious as exploiting a child anywhere else. Our laws should reflect that reality, and our children should not have to wait any longer.
• Brett Tolman is executive director for Right On Crime. Marilyn Davidson is a regional director and Oklahoma state director for Right On Crime.
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