Panama kids face social network sex blackmail

A NEW TYPE of social networks sex crime, blackmailing victims, usually children, in exchange for sex is alerting Panama authorities.
First circuit, prosecutor Kathia Melendez said that reports were arriving through 2013, of adolescents forced to have sex under the threat of spreading nude or compromising images on social networks.

Sexual predators pretending to be teenagers invite the victim to sustain a conversation through social media, whether Facebook or Whatsapp,
Once they have the attention of the victim for several days, the attacker asks to for a photo showing the victim scantily clad or completely naked.
After receiving the photo, the sexual predator threatens to spread it on social networks or send it to parents, shoeing the kind of activities they are engaged in
At this point the offender arranges a meeting and sexually abuses the victim.
Melendez says that in 2014 have 10 cases that fall into this mode have been reported but the toll may be higher, as not every victim reports the abuse.
Usually the victims are children and women. However, there are also cases of men.
The prosecutor relates the case of a man in Chepo who had a collection of porn movies and used to search among students of nearby schools for girls who physically resembled actresses on the videos. He would en send a copy of the video to the victim and threatened to go public claiming she was the one who had starred in the sex scenes reports La Prensa
Melendez says there have also been cases in which the offenders are minors. Usually the victims are between 11 and 17 years old. But there is a case of an adult woman who was a victim of this type of sexual blackmail.

In 2013 the Sex Crimes Division of the Directorate of Judicial Investigation investigated 25 complaints regarding this method.
Article 187 of the Criminal Code applies to sentences of six to eight years in prison for anyone who “avails email, global information networks or other means of individual or mass media to incite or promote online, sex with underage persons or to offer your services or do simulate this line, by phone or in person. “

According to Melendez, parents and responsible adults should be aware of the contacts their kids have on social networks to avoid falling victim to this type of criminal activity.
She also said that young people should be alert to social networking contacts from strangers making suggestions of a sexual nature.
He asked them to report, because this way you can stop predators. Another key element to prevent being a victim is not posting too much personal information on social networks.
Meanwhile, Alejandro Perez a psychiatrist at the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences said that victims of such crimes require counseling, to avoid suffering serious negative personality impacts.
Perezsaid that treatment in these cases should be carried for several months to allow the patient to regain self-esteem and overcome the fear of sustaining healthy relationships.
The psychiatrist advised unqualified family support to deal with the aftermath for the victims of such abuses