The Story of H.M.
Important notes for facilitators:
Allow participants to voice opinions freely without
immediately interjecting feedback. The facilitator
should listen carefully to the conversation and
thank participants for sharing their thoughts on
each question. After participants have shared the
facilitator can and should direct participants back
to the film and salient points about risks and safer
behaviors online.
https://vimeo.com/713031554/5f689b9cc8
Important Resources for additional support:
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
24 hour hotline: 1-800-843-5678
Make a CyberTipline report: https://report.cybertip.org/
Additional help to remove content from the internet:
www.missingkids.org/takeitdown
Victim and Family Support
email: [email protected]
Suicide Prevention Hotline (by phone or chat)
800-273-8255 or www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org
RAINN National Sexual Assault Hotline 1-800-656-4673 or chat www.rainn.org
An important goal of these video modules and discussion questions is
to help and encourage young people to report victimization to adults.
However, facilitators should always be cognizant that there are victims
who are not able to come forward and it is always possible there are
some such victims in your audience. We want to praise victims who
were able to report and encourage others to do the same, but we want to
avoid putting additional shame and blame on victims who not able to.
Reiterate often in these discussions that victims can always choose to
report and that victims are never to blame for their own abuse even if
they have not yet or are not able to come forward. Do not say that victims
should report or imply that those who endure victimization without
reporting are not brave or are to blame for allowing others to be victimized
https://vimeo.com/717550746/dfbcafa907
They just started talking online and the conversations were
normal in the beginning. He told her she was pretty.
He friended with her Facebook friends first and then sent
her a friend request. H.M. saw that he was already friends
with some of her friends which made her more comfortable
accepting his request.
He asked her how old she was and the name of her school.
He used that information to threaten that he would send
her images to others at her high school. His threats were
more frightening since he did know where she went to
school and what grade she was in.
He portrayed himself as a very attractive teenager using a
fake profile picture. He used the name-Steve Crofton.
He first used flattery to get compromising images of H.M.
and then the conversation turned- he started his threats.
He threatened to send her images to her friends on
Facebook and to her entire school. This is very typical of
sextortion cases- usually a predator gets a compromising
image or video of the victim by flattery and then uses that
against them to continue to get more images- and videos-
from victims.
He created a new profile- with a new name- Will Williams-
and messaged her privately using this new profile.
He continued to threaten her. Curiosity made her want to
open his messages.
Her sextortion ended immediately- she only interacted with
him a couple of hours.
She saved many more girls who were not able to come
forward. Some of them were victimized for much longer
periods of time.
Answers
Discussion Questions
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How did H.M.’s interactions with the person who
ultimately sextorted her start?
How did it progress- what tactics did the predator
use to get her to accept her friend request?
How do you decide what friend requests to accept?
Are you considering doing anything
differently now that you have seen what happened
to H.M.? If so, what will you do differently?
Did the predator ask H.M. any specific questions?
What kind of information was he looking for? How
did he use it against her later?
How did the predator portray himself- what age did
he say he was? What was his fake name?
How did the interaction turn – at what point?
What threats did the predator use to get H.M. to
give him more images? How is this typical of
sextortion cases that we have been learning
about?
What did the predator do when H.M. blocked him?
What common tactic did he use to get
around the block?
How did coming forward and telling her parents
change H.M.’s life? Did the sextortion end?
How did coming forward, telling her parents, and
getting law enforcement involved change the lives
of all the victims in this case?
How could you help a friend if they were in H.M.’s
situation?
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