New York City girl Ella, now 13, was subject to an Instagram predator’s terror when she was 12
An Instagram predator tried to blackmail a 12-year-old girl into sending a nude photo of herself.
And the family of Ella, now 13, says their concerns fell on deaf ears in the police department, according to an investigation by NBC New York.
Ella described how the predator used a young girl in a gymnastics pose as their profile photo and proceeded to send a follow request to her.
She thought the girl might have been a mutual friend.
Instead, the predator sent Ella a photo of a penis.
‘At that point I realized they are not who they said they are,’ Ella told the station.
‘I had to block them and report them. I thought it was over.’
Instagram did take the predator’s page down, but they returned to the site under a different name months later and proceeded to attempt to blackmail Ella into sending a nude picture of herself.
The predator appeared to allege that Ella had somehow committed a crime because she received a photo of the penis.
Ella described how the predator used a young girl in a gymnastics pose as their profile photo and proceeded to send a follow request to her. She thought the girl might have been a mutual friend
The predator sent a photo of a penis, at which point Ella reported and blocked the Instagram user. The app did take the predator’s Instagram down but they later resurfaced and tried to blackmail Ella into sending a nude photo of herself
‘He kept saying, “End this, Ella. You can make this end,”‘ Ella told NBC New York. ‘I didn’t know what to do’
They insisted she send a topless photo of herself after she sent a photo of her face.
‘He kept saying, “End this, Ella. You can make this end,”‘ Ella told NBC New York. ‘I didn’t know what to do.’
Ella described how the predator’s forcefulness sowed seeds of doubt in her mind as to whether she had done something wrong in simply receiving the photo, which she deleted.
But instead of complying with the predator’s demands, she eventually told her mother what had happened.
Her mother, a former prosecutor, brought her daughter’s story to the police, who she said told her they ‘really can’t do anything’ because the predator had not ‘actually tried to make contact in person in New York’.
Her mother’s next step was to go to Instagram, which eventually told her: ‘We won’t be able to take any further action on this report.’
Recommendations Ella’s mother made included finding and blocking the predator’s IP address or sharing information with law enforcement.
After NBC New York’s team investigated the incident, both Instagram and law enforcement began investigating.
The NYPD does have a unit to investigate cyber crimes involving children, and Ella’s case will also be investigated by the Detective Bureau Computer Crime Squad.
Similar crimes should be reported to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov or 800-CALL-FBI, and/or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at missingkids.com or 800-THE-LOTS.