As AFN has previously reported, child sexual exploitation known as sextortion involves a child predator who gains an adolescent's trust by pretending to be someone the child knows. Contact is made via some sort of electronic device through social media, text messages, or online games.
Then, after sensitive photos are exchanged, the predator reveals his true identity and blackmails the child, often requiring money. In recent documented cases, some victims decide suicide is the only way out of the situation.
This month, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) identified "764" as a "network of nihilistic violent extremists" that is preying on vulnerable young people with the goal of "accelerating social unrest and the downfall of the current world order, including the United States government."
Marcel van der Watt, president and CEO at the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE), points out that exploiting young children is not new.
"I've personally worked with cases dating back to the early 2000s as a law enforcement officer," he notes, adding, "I do think there's a confluence of things that's just allowing this to proliferate. We have the democratization, really, of technology, access to the internet. As we always say, where children play, that's where the predators prey."
Van der Watt wants parents to realize their awareness of what their children have access to online is "critically important."
"Many children have access to smartphones throughout the night, throughout the day, and that's just not healthy," he asserts. "It's got very real risks."
Smartphones expose young people to adult content, online predators, cyberbullying, and addictive platforms before they have the maturity to process or resist them. This can harm mental health, distort relationships and sexuality, and undermine healthy emotional and social development.
"I think parents need to understand that they have a role to play," van der Watt adds.
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, more than 2,000 reports of abuse connected to 764 and similar networks were received in the first nine months of 2025. This number is double the number the agency received last year.
The FBI is currently investigating over 350 people across the U.S. whom they suspect are connected to 764 or other coercive networks.
