Lawmakers push bill to criminalize sextortion

Senator Ashley Moody and Representative Laurel Lee introduced the Combating Online Predators Act in Congress on February 6, 2026, explicitly criminalizing intentional threats to distribute child sexual abuse material. The FBI received nearly 55,000 reports of sextortion and extortion crimes in 2024, a 59 percent increase from the previous year, with teenage boys aged 14 to 17 identified as particularly vulnerable. Both legislators, former prosecutors who handled internet crimes against children, noted the difficulty of prosecuting sextortion under existing statutes that lacked specific provisions targeting the intentional extortion of children using sexual images.

Criminalization establishes consequence but does not prevent the first message. Guardii's anti-sextortion detection module identifies the coercion tactic in real time, flagging the threat to distribute intimate imagery or demand payment as it emerges in the direct-message exchange, not after a report is filed. The system blocks hostile contact before it reaches the child, surfaces the pattern to a parent or authority with the context required to act, and enables rapid escalation to law enforcement where the threat is imminent, translating the criminal prohibition into operational prevention at the point of contact.