El Paso FBI warns of children being targeted by ‘sextortion’ blackmail

EL PASO, Texas -- Your child could be blackmailed into sending sexually explicit images to an unknown stranger online, warns the El Paso office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The FBI says "sextortion" targeting children is on the rise.

And if the request for explicit pics is not met, the children are threatened or bullied.

"For us in FBI and even law enforcement, image abuse for child pornography is a constant fight for us and it's especially even harder when our own children are self-producing it and giving it to the predators out there," explained El Paso FBI spokeswoman Jeanette Harper.

The FBI has developed online tools to stop "sextortion" - which are available on the FBI's website by clicking here.