Sextortion or online sexual extortion cases are increasing in the US and other western countries as the use of technology especially the mobile phone and social networking sites are helping criminals to get information easily.

In United States Government warned about increasing number of Sextortion cases.

Teens send their nude or semi nude photos via SMS or social networking photos to their loved ones. Computer hackers hack in to their social networking account or mobile phone or webcam, collect those pictures and blackmail them with the images.

Most people not aware that privacy is almost non-existent on the web. Last month millions of facebook profiles were hacked and displayed online.

US Federal Trade Commission has many recommendations for protecting your privacy on the web like

• Post only information that you are comfortable with others seeing
• Consider not posting your photo
• Think about how different sites work before deciding to join a site

Here is some good tips about Social Networking Safety

http://www.zonshare.com/articles/social-networking-safety-tips.html

To reduce the number of Sextortion cases teens and their parents should be well aware about these facts and should be very careful while dealing with online content.