{"id":122367,"date":"2026-02-24T20:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/122367\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T20:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T20:22:10","slug":"pittsburgh-area-nonprofit-urges-parents-to-look-for-warning-signs-of-sextortion-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/122367\/","title":{"rendered":"Pittsburgh-area nonprofit urges parents to look for warning signs of sextortion"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Investigators say <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/pittsburgh\/news\/peters-township-high-school-catfishing-sextortion-scheme\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-absolute=\"true\" data-invalid-url-rewritten-http=\"\">at least 21 boys were catfished and sextorted<\/a>\u00a0after Zachariah Meyers, an 18-year-old Peters Township High School senior, pretended to be an adult film star from the Netherlands, with at least 14 teenagers sending pornographic pictures of themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Now, a representative from the nonprofit Pittsburgh Action Against Rape is urging parents to look for signs of sextortion and talk with their teenagers.<\/p>\n<p>William McGinnis, the director of education for PAAR, said it&#8217;s common for kids to get wrapped up in this, often because they&#8217;re misled. The more kids get involved in it, the less likely they are to say something, he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re afraid for themselves, and they&#8217;re afraid of the adults&#8217; reaction in those spaces,&#8221; McGinnis said.<\/p>\n<p>It is important that parents create an environment where kids feel comfortable talking in case it were to happen to them, McGinnis added. Not in a punitive or disciplinary way, though.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We think about [parents] installing apps that track them,&#8221; McGinnis said. &#8220;They think about [parents] taking away certain things.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>He says not to punish kids for speaking up. They may end up using those things you&#8217;ve taken away anyway.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re just more secretive about it,&#8221; McGinnis said.<\/p>\n<p>McGinnis told KDKA-TV that active bystanders can also be of help, including fellow students.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think a good friend should say something when they know this is happening and their friend is being targeted, or a problem is happening,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Bystanders and parents need to look for signs of someone being sextorted. McGinnis said some of those signs are commonly associated with trauma.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Somebody withdraws, or they&#8217;re unwilling to go to school,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They may stop going out and doing things.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If you happen to be a victim and are trying to stop the sextortion, it is imperative to report it. Do not pay the money the person behind you may be asking for, McGinnis said.<\/p>\n<p>As Meyers faces more than 300 felony charges, stories like this are reminders, McGinnis said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think these stories allow for that conversation to start now,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>\n          More from CBS News\n        <\/p>\n<p class=\"content__tags__label\">In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Investigators say at least 21 boys were catfished and sextorted\u00a0after Zachariah Meyers, an 18-year-old Peters Township High School&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":122368,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[56570,73,75,74,24986,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-122367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-catfishing","9":"tag-pittsburgh","10":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","11":"tag-pittsburgh-news","12":"tag-sextortion","13":"tag-washington-county"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/122368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}