When text messaging and social media first became popular the immediacy of the communication was lauded. It was a way to break down walls and bring people together. Yet, as with any medium there has been a plenty of unforeseen negatives. For every happy match.com commercial there seems to be a countering case of sexual exploitation through the means of texting or social media.

Teenager Anthony Stancl received a 15-year prison sentence for black mailing several of his peers into sexual relationships. Between spring of 2007 and fall of 2008, Stancl posed as a teenage girl named “Kayla” on Facebook. While posing as “Kayla”, Stancl requested and received explicit picture of at least seven New Berlin, Wisconsin area teenage boys.

Stancl then used the pictures to force the boys into sex acts. It was not the first time that Stancl has been in trouble with the law. As a 13-year-old, he was convicted of having in appropriate contact with a 3-year-old.

In Stancl’s case the use of social media appeals to be a case of a sexual predator using new means to attack victims. But is access to the Internet creating a new generation of sexual predators that would not have ever thought off exploiting someone sexually without using a computer or a cell phone as a filter?

There has been a rise in the crime that is now being referred to as “sextortion” in some court documents. The case involving Stancl is certainly an example, but generally the crime has been limited to blackmailing victims into sending explicit photos or video so that other damaging photos are not exposed to the family or friends of a victim.

This crime would not be possible in almost all of the cases without the access to technology. Many of the victims did not even know their blackmailer. The initial photos were simply distributed and tagged on a web site. The person committing the crime then used the internet to contact their victim usually through a social networking site such as Facebook or Myspace. The victims were strangers, who were only known online.