Blackmail with sexualized images

The right to sexual self-determination and the right to one's own image can be violated if the distribution of intimate or sex-related media content is threatened. The content may be genuine or manipulated by AI. 

Sextortion refers to sexual blackmail via the internet. The term is made up of the words "sex" and "extortion". People usually contact their victims online in order to obtain sexually explicit images of them. They then threaten to publish the material in order to obtain money or further recordings. In the case of financially motivated sextortion, perpetrators demand money. Financial sextortion is increasingly being used by international fraud gangs . In sexually motivated se xtortion, perpetrators demand further sexual images.

In another form of sextortion, victims receive messages claiming to already be in possession of intimate recordings. Perpetrators claim, for example, to have "hacked" a device belonging to the person concerned and to have come across the material in the process. In these cases too, victims are usually asked to send money.

In view of the rise in deepfakes on the internet, experts are also warning of sextortion cases in which AI-generated content is used as a means of blackmailing those affected. Further information on the topic of artificial intelligence and sexual violence can be found on the page Deepnudes & Deepfake porn.

Sextortion is punishable as a form of blackmail. If it involves images of children or young people, it is also a criminal offense for the creation, possession or distribution of child or youth pornography.