Surrey teacher calls for more action, conversation around sextortion risks

A Surrey teacher is saying British Columbians need to be having more conversations between kids and parents about the risks of sharing intimate images online.

Teacher Annie Ohana says sharing intimate images is becoming normalized, and conversations at school or with parents can help remove the stigma around asking for help when kids are being contacted by a predator.

“I’ve often wondered what stopped them from telling people, from going to their parents, from going to a teacher,” she said.

This comes after a man overseas was charged in connection with a financial sextortion investigation, which was launched following the death of a teen in Surrey.

In response to recent events, Premier David Eby says the province is working to increase education for families, but more importantly, accountability for companies who are allowing this to happen.

He says if this was a brick and mortar company, where youth showed up and were preyed upon for intimate images, action would be much more swift and aggressive.

Therefore, Eby announced his government is working through legal channels to hold social media companies accountable for allowing this bullying to take place on their platforms.

“In the interim, because these are big, unaccountable multibillion-dollar companies, we’ll make sure that parents and kids have the tools they need to respond if they’re going to continue to operate in such an irresponsible and reprehensible way,” Eby said.

The premier says work is underway on materials to help parents manage kids’ technology and to help kids figure out what resources are available to them.

Teacher Annie Ohana says kids need to understand the risks in sharing intimate images with each other, which she thinks makes them easier prey to online predators.

“I think we really need to get into what that looks like and also red flags that they should be looking for,” Ohana said.

In the past year, two B.C. teens took their life because of sextortion.