Families are being warned about the danger of location sharing after a man in Edmonton allegedly used Snapchat to track down and threaten two youth he was victimizing online.
The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Team’s (ALERT) Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit said the man, who went by the username “max_bxyz” on Snapchat, had been talking with the victims online and threatening them into sharing sexually explicit videos of themselves.
ICE said the man, who was “completely unknown to the family,” allegedly knew which school they attended and reportedly approached one of the children outside the family home.
The agency said the victims complied with the man’s requests out “of extreme fear for their safety and the safety of their family.”
“A case like this is a manifestation of every parent’s worst fears, and you can appreciate how scary this situation would have been for the victims,” said ICE Staff Sgt. Alison Church.
“The children faced significant threats of violence, or they believed that they and their family members would be murdered if they did not comply with the demands for pictures and videos,” Church said.
ICE began investigating the man in August after a victim’s family member called police; on Sept. 10, 18-year-old Arshdeep Singh was arrested and charged with:
- child luring;
- extortion;
- criminal harassment;
- making sexually explicit materials available to a child;
- making child sexual abuse and exploitation materials;
- possessing child sexual abuse and exploitation materials; and
- accessing child sexual abuse and exploitation materials.
ICE believes there could be more victims and is asking parents to check their children’s apps for contact with “max_bxyz.” Anyone with information is asked to call police or Crime Stoppers.
At a Friday media event, Church said there are offenders who specifically target kids and teens they can manipulate and extort using location-sharing data.
“I cannot imagine what is stronger than, ‘I will kill you and I know where you live,’” she added.
The agency is asking parents to speak with children, especially younger ones who are more vulnerable, about safe social media usage and turning off location sharing on social media apps.
“(We want) to highlight what can happen when you share your location services, and this is the extreme: that offender comes to the home and approaches the children,” Church said. “The potential for what could have happened is that that child could have been taken.”
