Federal agents combating child exploitation must also grapple with public reluctance to talk about crisis
Three years after her son's suicide, Pauline Stuart said she now has a better perspective on who her real friends are.
Stuart's son, Ryan Last, was 17 and a high-achieving high school student in a close-knit family when he took his own life in 2022. He did so shortly after becoming the victim of a criminal "sextortion" plot.
Four men were charged last week in connection with a scheme to target and extort Stuart's son. But there is another pernicious problem Stuart is trying to combat: a public aversion to acknowledging and talking about America's crisis of child sex exploitation.
"It's almost like people feel like they'll get 'cooties' if they simply talk about it," Stuart told CBS News in an interview from her Oregon home. "People I thought were my friends now seem uncomfortable when I walk in. It seems they feel talking about this tragedy is 'contagious' and can't seem to handle talking to me."
Ryan Last's suicide is just one in a flood of child sex exploitation cases since 2022, including a distinctive and alarming surge in cases of what's now called sextortion, in which children are lured into sharing illicit images and later blackmailed by the recipients.
A CBS News review of FBI data and reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children shows more than 20 million tips regarding potential child sex exploitation have been reported to safety officials in each of the past two years. FBI data showed the number of sextortion cases has quintupled since 2019.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also told CBS News, "We've seen an alarming rise in the most urgent and dangerous threats: a 192% increase in online enticement, a 1,325% spike in AI-generated abuse material and a growing number of reports linked to violent online groups targeting children."
But Stuart, child safety experts and federal investigators who spoke with CBS News said the silence and a dearth of news coverage of the crisis of child sex abuse may hamper their efforts to warn families, combat the problem and catch the criminals.
"Parents just don't think it can happen to their children, so they just shut down conversations about it," Stuart said.
"This is a topic that does make people squeamish, but we have to be direct and lean into the discomfort," said Adam Rosenberg, the executive director of the Baltimore-based Center for Hope, which helps prevent child abuse and assist victims.
"If we adults can't talk about it, how do we expect our children to do so," Rosenberg said.
The Justice Department, including Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino have launched efforts to raise the profile of the crisis.
In a public campaign branded "Operation Restore Justice", the Justice Department executed a nationwide public campaign by federal agents and local law enforcement to track down offenders, execute arrests and file criminal charges.
At least 200 arrests have been announced, including an Illinois man accused of producing illicit images of an 8-year-old, a West Michigan teacher alleged to have unlawful photos of a student and a Florida prison inmate accused of having child sex abuse images on a contraband phone.
The Justice Department sought to publicize the campaign and its impact through targeted local news releases from FBI field offices and public remarks earlier this month from its headquarters in Washington, D.C., by Bondi and Patel.
With network TV cameras focused on her speech, Bondi said, "Parents, you have to know: Your child has no right to privacy on the internet," Bondi said in her speech. "You have to monitor what they are doing."
"These depraved human beings, if convicted, will face the maximum penalty in prison, some for life," Bondi said. "If you are online targeting a child, you will not escape us."
FBI field offices and the 93 U.S. attorney offices, which have reach into local community media, spotlighted local arrests from "Operation Restore Justice," including an announcement from the U.S. attorney in New Jersey who publicized the arrests of four New Jersey men and one New Jersey woman on child pornography charges between April 28 and May 2. The initiative, which yielded hundreds of arrests, was covered in hundreds of media outlet reports that amplified the issue.
Bongino, who was a talk-radio star and social media giant with an audience of millions when he took his post at the FBI, has used his digital platforms to press the issue. In a May 7 social media post, he wrote, "Operation Restore Justice is a powerful message: If you harm children in America, you will be given no sanctuary. There is nowhere you can hide. You will be hunted down, and you will be prosecuted."
In a slickly-produced about the initiative, the agency shows agents working in the field in New York, Baltimore, Cleveland, Atlanta and Chicago, as part of the operation.
"Crimes against children, particularly the crimes targeted in Operation Restore Justice, are some of the most heartbreaking and difficult cases we encounter."
Justice Department spokesperson Kristina Mastropasqua told CBS News., "Parents, caregivers, and communities often do not realize the nature of the threat, how they can help in combatting it, or that they ought to be demanding safer online environments for their children."
Rosenberg, whose Maryland-based organization has also helped advocate for tougher laws to combat child abuse, said it is critically important to remove the stigma around conversations about child sex exploitation.
"We need to talk directly. We can't tip-toe around it," Rosenberg said. "We need to reduce the stigma in the discussion, as we did in the past with the topic of AIDS and cancer."
Rosenberg said government agencies are wise to use their platforms and communication tools to raise the issue and encourage conversations about child sex abuse.
An FBI official told CBS News the agency is seeing an upward trend in risks to children, in part because of advances in artificial intelligence technology, the pervasiveness of certain phone apps and criminal organizations that target children for extortion money.
Stuart, who last week was notified of a series of arrests in connection with the extortion of her son, said parents need to be more assertive and resourceful in discussing the risks with each other and with children.
"Parents think it absolutely can't happen to their kids," Stuart said. "And they're wrong. We had parental controls on Ryan's phone. We had limits on what sites he could go on. He couldn't download apps without our approval. It's such a hard subject to cover, but there have been so many boys who've lost their lives to this."
Mastropasqua said the Justice Department works closely with other law enforcement agencies and experts to share prevention tools. She said, "The Department's primary responsibility is always to the victims."
Last week, the Justice Department announced arrests in connection with the extortion of Stuart's son. Among them was a citizen of Côte d'Ivoire, Alfred Kassi, who was accused of sextortion against Ryan Stuart and arrested by Ivorian authorities on April 29.
"At the time of his arrest," investigators said, "Kassi allegedly still had the sextortion messages he sent to the 17-year-old victim in February 2022 on his phone."
If you or someone you know might be at risk of suicide, there is help. In the U.S., call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 or visit . In the U.K., call at 116123.
