When North Cache Middle school student Abigal Chatterley joined the Hyde Park Youth Council, she developed a suicide awareness class as her first activity. That led to the launch of the sextortion and suicide awareness community event at Skyview High Schoolin Smithfield.
“At that time a few teens around the valley and surrounding areas had recently committed suicide. When I heard about this my heart ached for them, their families and how these people thought that they could not talk to anyone about their struggles and sorrows,” Chatterly said.
She went on to say that a simple hello, a phone call, lunch date, or hang out, might make all the difference in the lives of those who are struggling.
Chatterly’s efforts inspired North Park Police Chief Kent Goodrich to take it a step further and address the problem of sextortion, which is when an online predator tricks someone into giving them nude photos or videos and then threatens to share them with others if the victim does not comply with their demands. He said based on the department’s cases, sextortion and suicide are closely linked and they are seeing an increase in them in Cache Valley and across the nation.
“They don’t know where to go for help and so they keep that bottled up and eventually start to think that suicide is an answer for them,” Goodrich said.
Goodrich said quite often parents react negatively when they find out their teen is a victim of sextortion.
“Things like ‘how could you do this? Why did you get involved in that?’ It’s a natural way to shut down that communication between the teens and their parents.
He hopes events like this one will help spark open and shame-free conversations around these topics so that help can come forward.
According to Goodrich, popular grooming platforms where predators use manipulation and psychological control on their victims include Snapchat, Roblox, and Yubo.
For more information, you can contact Chief Goodrich at 435-753-7600 or kgoodrich@northparkpolice.org.
