Experts have issued an urgent warning following the tragic death of a boy who was found dead moments after ‘flirting with a girl’ online.
Morgan Moore, from El Dorado, Kansas, U.S., says her son, 14-year-old Caleb Moore, was a ‘pretty popular’ teenager who loved sports, including football and basketball.
“Caleb was a pretty popular kid, really funny and goofy, and made people laugh a lot,” she says.
“He was mild-mannered, so got along with everybody. He loves sports and played football, basketball and was really good at wrestling.”
Yet devastatingly, Caleb died following a cruel social media ‘s**plotation’ plot.
Moore claims the teen was ‘flirting’ with who he believed was a 14-year-old girl on TikTok on June 10, before moving to Snapchat.
After the ‘girl’ allegedly sent him compromising photos of herself, the mom-of-five says Caleb then sent over similar photos in return.
Moore claims ‘she’ then began to threaten Caleb and demanded he pay a large amount of cash or they would leak his photos.
In this moment, the mom believes her son felt he had nowhere to turn, driving him to s**cide.
Moore claims the teen’s conversation with this stranger saw her son’s ‘happiness and hope destroyed in 35 minutes.’
TikTok said that its platform does not allow messaging for those aged under 16, however, the El Dorado Police Department said that the conversation began on TikTok before moving to another platform on which the images were sent.
It is unclear if Caleb had used his correct age to access the platform.
Snapchat said it offers ‘strong safety settings’ for Snapchat users aged between 13-17 and has a Family Safety Hub on its website designed to help families navigate Snapchat safely and confidently.
“I want his death to have as much meaning as his life did, which was a lot. He is very, very missed and very loved,” Moore said.
“I never thought this would happen to him or us. I found out about it right after Caleb had fired the gun because his dad called me.
“When I got there, Caleb was still alive and breathing, but they were unable to resuscitate him, so they stopped trying as nothing was working.
“He passed away in the house and it was very difficult because I wanted to be with him but they wouldn’t let me go inside as they didn’t want me to see anything.
“I was hysterical and screaming and begging them to not give up on my boy and let me go to him. I was inconsolable.
“It was the worst moment of my life. At this point, we didn’t know why Caleb had shot himself. It didn’t make sense.”
Caleb’s mom said that later, the police wanted to show her something they had found on his phone.
“That is when they had gone through his TikTok messages and showed me the progression. It had stolen my boy’s happiness and hope in a 35-minute span,” Moore said.
“It was someone posing as a girl his age, and they started flirting, and she sent him photos, and then ‘she’ asked him to send pictures.
“He sent the photos and these were of a compromising nature. As soon as he sent them, the conversation switched.
“This person began demanding money and making threats that if he didn’t send over the money, they were going to expose his photos and his family and friends would be ashamed of him.
“They made him feel like his life was over as he had made this mistake.”
Before shooting himself, Moore claims her son even sent a photo of the gun to the TikTok user in an attempt to stop the threats, but it didn’t help.
“I don’t think Caleb thought that we wouldn’t help him, I think he felt like we wouldn’t be able to help him or fix it, and it was going to be his fault, and none of these things are true.
“The most devastating loss I can imagine is losing one of your kids, and now I’m in that situation, and it was all so avoidable.
“I know Caleb had pleaded with the person to not send the pictures out. He had even sent a photo of the gun to them, and they still didn’t stop and so he did use it.
“It’s so heartless and anonymous. The police are doing what they can, but the reality of them tracking down the individual is really low.
“It’s incredibly overwhelming because even though Caleb was the most loved kid and happy, funny, and responsible on these platforms, and this still happened to him.
“I don’t have any idea how these people found my son, and I’m guessing TikTok doesn’t either.
“I think there should be more accountability or monitoring [on TikTok]. There has to be something that they can do.”
Moore says her son had been using TikTok for around a year and that they had had open conversations about internet safety.
Now, she is using Caleb’s tragic death to urge other children to tell a responsible adult if they feel they are in danger online.
“I don’t know how to stress enough to children to tell someone your parents about it or another trusted adult,” she said.
“You just have to tell someone because they purposely make it seem like they have so much more power than they do.
“You need to battle the false communication between the scammer and your child with open conversation with you and your child.”
The U.K.‘s National Crime Agency (NCA) issued a warning about ‘s**tortation’ schemes earlier this year.
The NCA explains that it is a type of online blackmail which involves people being forced into paying money or carrying out some other financial demand under the threat of a nude or semi-nude image of them being released. These photos are either taken by the victim or could be fake images created by the extortionist.
The agency warns young people that it usually plays out through an online account that appears to belong to a young person. This quickly escalates into s**ually explicit communications, which involve the offender sharing an explicit image. The victim may feel manipulated or pressured into taking nude or semi-nude photos or videos themselves.
Alternatively, victims may be told they have been hacked and that the offender has access to their images – even if this isn’t the case.
At this point, the victim can be blackmailed into sending money or meeting another financial demand under the threat of photos being shared.
The NCA advises parents whose child may be a victim of extortion to block the contact, but avoid deleting any evidence, such as messages or phone numbers.
Victims are also encouraged to report the crime to the police.
James Babbage, Director General for Threats at the National Crime Agency, says ‘s**plotation’ is a ‘callous’ crime that parents and guardians need to be made aware of.
“‘S**tortion’ causes immeasurable stress and anguish, and we know there are adults and young people who have devastatingly taken their own lives as a result,” Babbage comments.
El Dorado Police Department confirmed that the conversation began on TikTok before moving to another platform on which the images were sent.
TikTok says it is deeply committed to making its platform a safe and positive experience for teens.
The social media platform claims that teens using TikTok who are aged 16 do not have access to direct messaging.
Adults using the platform are also unable to send message requests to teens, and no one in the U.S. can send off-platform imagery in DMs.
The platform says that when people receive a message from someone for the first time, they are prompted to mark the conversation as safe or report the sender.
Messaging on TikTok is not end-to-end encrypted, which the social media giant claims makes its platform undesirable for those who would attempt to share illegal material.
Snapchat says on its website page that it offers extra protection to teens to help prevent unwanted contact from strangers. This includes strong safety settings for Snapchat users aged between 13-17, which means their accounts are private by default, including their friend lists.
Due to this, they state that users of this age can only communicate with mutually accepted friends or those whose numbers they have already saved to their contacts.
Snapchat also has a Family Safety Hub on its website, which is intentionally designed to help families navigate Snapchat safely and confidently.
An El Dorado Police Department spokesman said: “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Moore family during this difficult time.
“We are amazed at the incredible strength and courage that this family has shown through the tragedy that they have suffered.
“We strongly support the fact that the family has made it a priority to share this story with others in an effort to protect the lives of other children, and we intend to support this family in every way possible.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Caleb’s family through this difficult time. After funeral costs, his parents will use the extra funds to set up a scholarship fund for the local athletics team.
