Riley Basford was a jokester, an athletic kid who loved the outdoors and dreamed of working in environmental conservation. That is until his life was tragically cut short at 15 by a Facebook predator. A mere six hours after a criminal tried to extort money from Riley under the threat of revealing private photos of him, Riley died from suicide. He’s far from the only victim – in a recent survey of 1000 parents, parents named Meta platforms Facebook and Instagram as the #1 and #2 places their children had been targeted by predators, sexually exploited, and sextorted online.

Sextortion often starts with an adult posing as an attractive teen and starting an online “relationship” with the victim. He eventually solicits sexual images from the victim and threatens to share those images if the victim doesn’t send money or more explicit images.

The good news is that technology exists to identify criminals like the one who took advantage of Riley and prevent them from hurting kids – but Meta isn’t using it. They don’t even have a reporting category for sextortion or blackmail – they instruct people to report this serious crime as “harassment” – the same category they tell people to use for spammy advertising. Facebook must immediately make the following changes to prevent sextortion of minors:

• Apply a grooming detection program to conversations between minors and adults to identify common grooming behaviors and sexual images of kids being shared

• Create a clear reporting category for extortion or blackmail so Meta can prioritize response over less serious violations

• Create and share a plan for how to keep minors safe from sextortion in encrypted environments

Nothing will bring Riley's light and joy back into the world, but Meta can help prevent other kids from being victims of this heinous crime on Facebook and Instagram.