A Qualitative Examination of School Counselors’ Experiences of Sextortion Cases of Female Students in Israel

Abstract

Sextortion (a portmanteau of “sexual” and “extortion”) is a relatively new phenomenon of sexual exploitation, which occurs when a person threatens another with the distribution of sexual content on the Internet, to obtain more pictures or videos, money, or have some other demand met. The current study examined how school counselors in Israel perceive the phenomenon of online sextortion. To this end, we conducted a qualitative study based on 20 semi-structured in-depth interviews with school counselors working in middle schools and high schools in Israel, who treated adolescent girls blackmailed over the Internet on sexual grounds. Findings indicate that the school counselors had difficulty in identifying and defining the cases they treated as instances of sextortion, and that in their view the harm was slight. Findings also indicate that school counselors associated the causes of sextortion with the victims and their backgrounds. We found differences between the Arab and secular and national-religious state education in the way Jewish counselors treated the victims and involved additional actors such as the victim’s parents and the police. This underscores the importance of providing educational staff with adequate knowledge and tools that are culturally suited to the victims.

Introduction

The term “sextortion” refers to the threat of disseminating sexual content online unless the extortionist receives additional sexual content, money, or the satisfaction of other demands (Henry & Powell, 2018; Patchin & Hinduja, 2018; Wolak et al., 2018). This is a common phenomenon involving teenagers and youths, (Wolak & Finkelhor, 2016), and it is directed against both men and women of different sexual or gender identities (Eaton et al., 2022).

Studies that examined this phenomenon among minors, reported an incidence of between 11% and 22%, with significantly higher percentages for female than for male adolescents (Patchin & Hinduja, 2018; Wolak et al., 2018). Although sextortion is not uncommon, only a small number of adolescent victims opt to share the experience, report it, or seek help with it (Wittes et al., 2016; Wolak et al., 2018). As a result of underreporting, the phenomenon and the proper ways to treat victims are not well known. School counselors are significant figures for students and are responsible for their mental wellbeing in school. They serve as significant adults with whom the students can share their problems outside the family (Liddle, 2013).

The goal of the present study was to examine how school counselors perceive the phenomenon of sextortion and how they treat the victims.

Adolescent Development in the Digital Age

In this day and age, a significant portion of young people’s social communication takes place online (Lenhart et al., 2010). Adolescents report that digital media and social networks provide them with a range of social interactions and identity-constructing processes (Henry & Powell, 2017). At the same time, the Internet is rife with danger. Adolescents perceive it as an accessible medium that allows immediate satisfaction of desires and needs, and believe that they can enjoy a sense of privacy online (O’Sullivan & Harrison, 2014). The possibility of maintaining anonymity online creates a subjective sense of privacy (Maczewski, 2002; Suler, 2004). Furthermore, in the absence of eye contact during interactions, parties can communicate and interact without seeing each other or their interlocutor’s facial expressions or reactions. This tends to eliminate psychological inhibitions, leading to quicker personal exposure, a sense of freedom, openness, and uninhibited self-expression. The result is a sense of intimacy and openness (Suler, 2004).

Online Sexual Correspondence between Adolescents

Sexting is the phenomenon of sending and receiving sexual content online, using texts, photos, video clips, or emoticons with implied or explicit sexual meaning (Dir et al., 2013; Cooper et al., 2016; Klettke et al., 2019). Studies have indicated a high frequency of sexting by adolescents. For example, a meta-analysis of 39 studies conducted worldwide indicated that 14.8% of participating adolescents had sexted others and 27.4% had received such messages (Madigan et al., 2018). A study conducted in Israel found that approximately 30% of youths in grades seven through 12 were involved in sexting activities (Dolev-Cohen & Ricon, 2020). Sexting can take place either within or outside of a romantic relationship (Burén & Lunde, 2018). In some cases, sexting is a result of pressure being exerted on one of the parties involved (Cooper et al., 2016). The research literature indicates that women are subject to greater pressure than are men to engage in sexting (Burén & Lunde, 2018). It appears that occasionally, the pressure to supply sexual photographs or content becomes a case of outright extortion.

Online Sextortion

Sextortion takes place when a person threatens to disseminate sexual photos or video clips of another person without that person’s consent, unless the victim provides additional sexual content, money, or meets some other demand (Henry & Powell, 2017; Wolak et al., 2018). The possibility of having sexual content exposed constitutes a threat not only because it is against one’s wishes, but also because the content cannot be removed or concealed. Furthermore, online dissemination makes the exposure potentially continuous and irreversible (O’Malley & Holt, 2020).

Sextortion can be carried out by someone with whom the victim is not familiar or by someone whom the victim knows well (Patchin & Hinduja, 2018). To obtain the sexual content, some use spyware or hack into PCs to find sexual content and steal it. Others use PC cameras to obtain footage (Quayle & Newman, 2015; Wittes et al., 2016; Wolak et al., 2018). At times, the perpetrator is someone who is known to the victim but uses a fake profile on online social networks to establish a friendly, romantic, or social connection for the purpose of obtaining information from the victim (Henry & Powell, 2018; Patchin & Hinduja, 2018). But sextortion can also take place as part of a romantic relationship in which the victim is involved (Cooper et al., 2016).

Studies that focused on the extent of the phenomenon among youths have shown that in the US, approximately 5% of middle school and high school participants had been victims of sextortion, and approximately 90% of the victims were female students (Patchin & Hinduja, 2018; Wolak et al., 2018). Several studies conducted in the US found that more than half of the young women who were subject to online sextortion reported that they provided the sexual contents as part of their sexting activity while in a romantic relationship with the perpetrator (Wolak et al., 2018). A study conducted in the Czech Republic similarly reported that 6.45% of youths aged 11–17 years were victims of sextortion and that 75% of the victims were female students (Kopecký, 2017). In Israel, based on police data, it appears that between 2014 and 2017, 643 cases of dissemination of sexual content online were reported, 20% of which included sextortion or threats (Nagar et al., 2019).

Despite the severity of the threat of dissemination, both online sextortion and other online offenses are underreported (Perren et al., 2012; Wolak et al., 2018). A study of sexting by adolescents in Israel found that 52.6% of the youths who were asked to send someone a nude self-photo did not share this information with anyone else, and only approximately 5.8% chose to tell a school counselor, teacher, parent, or another adult figure (Dolev-Cohen & Ricon, 2020). This finding attests to the prevalence of sexting in the country in general, which has become common practice for youths, and the infrequent involvement of significant adults in the management of sexual matters. Findings show that in matters of sextortion, in the US, approximately 17% of the victims opt to seek help and only 8% report the event to the police (Patchin & Hinduja, 2018). The research literature offers several explanations for the underreporting of sextortion, including the age of the victim, a sense of shame and guilt, adolescent attitudes toward receiving help, fear of further extortion if they inform someone, and belief that nothing can be done to help them (Wolak et al., 2018; Tomczyk & Kopecký, 2016). Moreover, blaming the victim or suggesting that the victim is responsible for the state of affairs further inhibits reporting or the seeking of assistance (Dolev-Cohen et al., 2020).

The scarcity of requests for help or social support relative to the reported frequency of sexual offenses reflects the short- and long-term danger for the adolescent victims because the consequences of these episodes are extensive and touch on many areas of the victim’s life. (Roach et al., 2021). Findings indicate that those who were subject to sextortion might experience mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal behavior (Hong et al., 2020; Nilsson et al., 2019). These outcomes demonstrate the importance of educating adolescents about the risks involved in using the online environment to send and receive sexual content, and of identifying as early as possible individuals who have been or are currently exposed to online sexual offenses. Moreover, because the ability to trust support figures is of utmost significance, it is important to identify the potential supporting figures in the youths’ environment and determine whether and how the victims’ trust in supportive adult figures can be strengthened, and whether the availability and accessibility of such figures can be increased. The focus of the present study was on one of the professional supportive figures that are part of the youths’ environment, namely, the school counselor.

Educational Counseling in Israel and Its Handling of Online Sexual Assaults

Many educational interventions related to adolescent sexuality focus on teaching healthy sexuality, postponing the age of first intercourse, promoting the use of contraceptives, and avoidance of sexually transmitted diseases (Steinberg, 2017). In recent years, there has been criticism of both the social tendency to emphasize gender inequality and the lack of emphasis on the need to introduce changes in the social and school climate, to create a safer environment for adolescents. Another gap identified by these critics concerns the need to educate adolescents about the potential dangers that are present in cyberspace (Dobson & Ringrose, 2016).

Israeli society is characterized by a variety of cultures, religions, and ethnicities, the largest of which are the Jewish and the Arab (Zeira et al., 2002). From a bird’s eye view, Jewish society may be considered modern and westernized (Dor & Cohen-Fridel, 2010), although at a finer resolution it varies primarily as a function of the degree of religiosity. A significant segment of Jewish society, specifically the ultra-Orthodox, is far less westernized and more collectivist and conservative than the rest of the Jewish population (for example, members of the ultra-Orthodox community do not use smartphones, which are the primary vehicle for sexting). Arab society is generally more conservative and also more collectivist, although in recent years it has undergone numerous changes, including greater emphasis on the individual advancement together with a gradual distancing from the collective and its values (Al-Malki et al., 2012). Nevertheless, Arab society remains traditional and conservative (Hussain, 2020) As far as sex education is concerned, in Arab society, parents are responsible for inculcating in their children the norms of proper sexual conduct. Parents, however, are not as open with their children on this topic as parents in the Jewish community typically are (Sigad & Tener, 2022; Sinai & Shehade, 2019). As a result, the discussion of sexuality that takes place between parents and children in the Arab community is limited (Sinai & Shehade, 2019). Moreover, sex education programs are practically nonexistent in Arab schools (Tahir, 2014), and Arab youths are exposed to all the content available online without receiving proper guidance on these subjects.

Therefore, it is important to examine how professionals guide the youths’ perceptions of sextortion, their role in handling the incident, and the tools available to them. The present study sought to examine the phenomenon of online sextortion and the ecology of its treatment from the perspective of Jewish and Arab school counselors. This information will serve as a valuable resource for considering ways to avoid further incidents involving sexual offenses, and make available to school counselors the tools to manage cases that they encounter, to provide the most suitable treatment to victims.

Material and Methods

The Research Paradigm

The qualitative method used in the study followed the phenomenological approach, which investigates phenomena from the point of view of the significance and meanings that people attribute to them, which in turn affects the way the phenomena are experienced (Creswell & Poth, 2016). Participants are given license to describe the phenomenon from their subjective point of view, based on their personal experience, enabling the phenomenologist to understand the participant’s first-person experience (Sokolowski, 2000). Reality is experienced as it is created in the interpersonal encounter (Spinelli, 2005). In the present study, we attempted to enter into the world of the school counselors, understand their experience as they encountered the young women who were victims of sextortion, and the authenticity with which they addressed the topic and treated the female students.

The Research Participants

To represent a range of educational counselors who confronted the sextortion of adolescents, we used purposive sampling (Lindlof, 1995; Andrade, 2021). We included both Jewish and Arab educational counselors who have confronted sextortion of female adolescents in Israel in one of the state-operated school systems. We continued interviewing until we achieved saturation (Patton, 2002).

We interviewed 20 school counselors who had been involved in treating adolescent female students who had been subject to online sextortion. All participants were female school counselors working in middle schools or high schools in Israel who reported having handled sextortion cases. Men did not participate in the study because most of the educational counselors in Israel are women, and we found no male counselors who had to contend with sextortion.

Twelve of the respondents worked in the state-operated secular and national-religious education systems (excluding the independently run ultra-Orthodox school system) and eight in state-operated schools in the Arab community. The Jewish segment of the Israeli education system is divided into secular and religious streams, it is customary to differentiate between the two streams in research conducted on Israeli schools. Accordingly, in assembling our sample, we made sure that both streams of Jewish education are represented. The Arab participants were Muslims whose level of religiosity ranged from secular to religious. Interviewees resided across the country and belonged to the upper-middle socioeconomic class (Table 1).

Table 1.

Demographic information about study participants.

Number	Pseudonym	Community	Age	Years of Experience as a school Counselor
1	Shira	Secular Jewish	55	17
2	Sasha	Secular Jewish	33	3
3	Daniela	Secular Jewish	52	20
4	Rachel	Secular Jewish	51	16
5	Anna	Secular Jewish	39	10
6	Lili	Secular Jewish	35	5
7	Billi	Secular Jewish	50	8
8	Clara	Secular Jewish	45	15
9	Viki	Religious Jewish	47	10
10	Kelly	Secular Jewish	45	7
11	Nina	Religious Jewish	47	3
12	Sarah	Religious Jewish	37	3
13	Laila	Secular Arab	36	4
14	Safa	Secular Arab	44	8
15	Nur	Religious Arab	44	10
16	Achlam	Religious Arab	46	11
17	Rana	Secular Arab	46	12
18	Gabi	Religious Arab	45	15
19	Halwa	Secular Arab	42	20
20	Ella	Religious Arab	43	7

Research Instruments

Data were collected using semi-structured in-depth interviews, which were conducted based on guidelines developed for the purposes of the present study.

The interview guidelines included three types of questions: descriptive questions, intended to elicit a description of events, situations, and places (“When did the event take place?” “Where did it take place?”); classification questions, designed to reveal and understand the criteria by which interviewees organized their knowledge (“Tell me about the victim”); and differentiating questions, intended to help distinguish between various meanings (“What did she feel?” “How did she act?” “What were her needs?”).

Procedure

Interviewees were recruited through an appeal for participants posted on school counselors’ social media platforms, asking those who were interested to contact the researchers. Additionally, school counselors were approached individually using the snowball sampling approach. Interested candidates contacted one of the researchers by phone, and received an explanation about the study and the research instrument, and were asked to provide informed consent. Next, a personal interview was scheduled with each participant, which took place at the participants’ home or workplace and lasted a few hours. This was during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic, therefore the interviews were conducted by videoconferencing or by phone. All participants agreed to have the interviews recorded.

Data analysis

We created a codebook for data analysis. Codes contained three components: name, an extensive definition that incorporated inclusion and exclusion criteria, and an example (DeCuir-Gunby et al., 2011). Each researcher (two of the authors belong to the Jewish community in Israel and one belong to the Arab community) assembled a codebook based on the interviews she conducted, discussed the individual codes, and merged them into the codebook that contained all the themes. An example of a code is “Cultural dilemmas in working with the victim’s parents,” describing how counselors addressed cultural aspects in handling sextortion and parental involvement. An example of a cultural dilemma is “He simply would have murdered her without thinking twice."

We processed the data in stages. First, we read the text of each interview as a single complete finding from the counselor’s point of view to obtain a holistic view of it. We then reread the text and marked arbitrary units of meaning based on personal impressions and interpretation, by identifying words, sentences, or recurring ideas that have crystallized into themes (Giorgi, 2012; Spinelli, 2005). Next, we conducted a structural organization of the themes, and refined and validated them to create a new and established order (Spinelli, 2005). At the end of this stage, the counselors’ point of view regarding the phenomenon of online sexual extortion and of its various components was formed. In this way, we integrated all the interviews and evaluated the question of how the counselor’s point of view contributed to the understanding of the phenomenon examined, in relation to the research questions. At the end of the analysis process, we selected excerpts for each theme.

Trustworthiness

To enhance trustworthiness, we conducted member checking during data collection, asking participants to clarify, detail, and provide examples of their conduct and perceptions (Morse, 2015). The interviews furnished authentic and detailed descriptions by participants of the phenomenon under investigation (Connelly, 2016).

Additionally, we backed up each idea in the Findings section with excerpts from the interviews, and examined these in light of the findings of other studies in the field. The findings of the present study confirmed those of previous research, which adds to the credibility of the current findings. Members of the research team conducted discussions about the findings to minimize biases in the interpretation of the data and further increase the reliability of the results. The analysis by each researcher of the groups under investigation in the Jewish and Arab communities was based on the codebook and reached similar conclusions, which also increased the reliability of the findings (Connelly, 2016; Cope, 2014). Finally, we saved the documentation of the analysis process and conducted peer debriefing (Bowen, 200), which further contributed to the reliability of the research process (Nowell et al., 2017).

The first author works in academia and is involved in education programs about the risks of sexting and sextortion. She teaches about the means of preventing sextortion and other risks faced by children and youths online. The research team was composed of researchers and field practitioners in educational counseling. All the authors believe in the importance of developing prevention practices based on research findings in the field of online sexual abuse.

Research Ethics

In accordance with the rules of ethical research, participants received an explanation, both during the initial phone call and before the interview began, about the goals and significance of the study. Furthermore, they were guaranteed anonymity by eliminating any identifying details. It was emphasized that they were free to refuse to answer any questions or to stop the interview at any moment. The main ethical issue in this study has to do with the sensitivity of the subject, of the content that may have come up during the interviews, and with the confidentiality of the identity of the young women. For this reason, we sought to conduct a sensitive and careful dialogue based on alliance and an ethics of caring, empathy, and inclusion between the interviewing researcher and the interviewee. The study was approved by the Oranim College of Education Ethics Review Board.

Findings

Based on the analysis of the interviews, we categorized the findings of the study according to three major themes: identifying the phenomenon, including the difficulty and the sense of confusion counselors experienced; characterization of the victims by the counselors, of their family background, personality, and the desire to be socially accepted; and the treatment of the victims of sextortion, which included three subthemes: the victim’s needs and the counselors’ response, working with the victims’ parents, and working within the system and with professionals from outside of the school system.

Identifying the Phenomenon

All the school counselors who participated in the study found it difficult to identify and name the phenomenon. It was clear that they were uncertain about which of these cases conformed to the definition of online sextortion. In the course of the interviews, they shifted from a sense of uncertainty and confusion to complete certainty about whether the incident could be considered sextortion. Jewish school counselors appeared to consider cases of sexual abuse on a continuum, overlooking some cases because they were considered less severe than other offenses, such as rape. Daniela described it thus: “Until you asked, I wasn’t certain, because it’s not as obvious as something like rape, where someone was attacked while walking down the street.” By contrast, because in the Arab community all sexual conduct might be regarded as a transgression, Arab school counselors treated all incidents with any sexual content as extremely serious and expressed concern. Achlam, reflecting this outlook, said: “In a more open society, a photograph might not be considered an important issue, but we live in a small village where everyone knows each other and everyone is very traditional; customs and norms are strictly observed."

As we examined the interviews, it became clear to us that the school counselors were attempting to associate the definition of sextortion with responsibility for the event. In most of the interviews, the school counselors appraised the degree to which the victim was responsible for the event. According to the counselors, when a young woman expresses interest or actively partakes in sending sexual messages, she is a participant in the events and responsible for it, which made the counselors question whether it should be considered a case of sextortion. Clara said that the young woman might have played a role in the development of the situation. Similarly, Daniela said: “She was the one who sent it; all they did was ask; it’s on her, she sent it.” According to these descriptions, the school counselors perceived the young women involved not only as victims but as partially responsible for the outcome.

By contrast, when the interviewees described cases in which someone had broken into one of the young women’s smartphone or computer and stolen the sexual content without her consent, and subsequently blackmailed her, they did not consider the unwilling party to be partially responsible but rather a victim. Nina described it thus: “I explained to her that it was not her fault... The other person is the criminal; he abused her right to privacy.” Yuval also noted, “There was an announcement circulating in the class that one of the students broke into others' accounts and that he was looking to get even with this young woman. He also wrote directly to her, saying that she owed him and that he would not stop until she sent clips of herself showering.” In cases such as these, it was obvious that the counselors felt more confident about defining the case as sextortion.

Based on the interviews, it became apparent that the school counselors were trying to establish a connection between the definition of sextortion and the degree to which the victims could be held responsible. In most of the interviews, they deliberated whether the victim should be held partially responsible, indicating that a woman who shows interest or actively sends sexual content should be considered partially responsible for the sextortion outcome. In other words, they found it difficult to identify cases of sextortion, especially if the victim sent the content that was later used to harm her.

Characterization of the Victims

The school counselors’ descriptions of the victims suggest that they were concerned with the victims’ background, as they sought to explain why some students were subject to sextortion while others were not. Some of the counselors referred to the victims' attributes, such as a history of problematic behaviors: “This is a girl who has told lies consistently to everyone, to her parents, friends, me, the system – everyone” (Lili). They also mentioned previous sexual behavior: “This isn't the first time she got caught up in events concerning sexuality and didn’t know how to stop it, so this case had a prior basis” (Sasha). Another school counselor described a victim thus: “She really was looking for sexual attention” (Nina). Others considered the victims to lack judgment, suggesting that it was their desire to gain social acceptance that led them to these incidents: “It was like… She considered the people who were using her as demonstrating affection and she gave them what they wanted” (Shira). Lili also described the victim as lacking in judgment: “It turns out that her friends posted a fake profile [of a boy] and sent her a message saying that he knew about her and wanted to be her boyfriend, adding that if she didn’t send him a clip of herself, he would show his friends the photos he already had. They didn't send her proof of any existing photos; they wanted to see what would happen and she sent a clip of herself undressing in the shower…”

The counselors considered the possibility that the young women yielded to threats and demands for sexual content because they were afraid that their social status might be negatively affected if they did not cooperate, or conversely, they believed that sending this content would improve their social standing with their peers. Anna described it thus: “Her basic understanding was that if she did not send it, she would have no friends!… She wanted to feel accepted, popular; she was afraid she wouldn't have a boyfriend and wouldn't be accepted.”

Other counselors associated the young women’s involvement in cases of sextortion with the victims’ cognitive abilities. For example, Rachel related the following: “We have an example of a young woman with a very low IQ; she must be developmentally delayed… She’s a beautiful girl and doesn't understand anything anyone says to her…”

Another factor that the interviewees attributed to the young women who were subject to sextortion had to do with their family background, which included lack of parental oversight, attention, and poor parent-child relationships. Thus, they described the sexual abuse suffered by the victims as deriving from the absence of a loving and caring relationship with significant adults, which caused the young women to seek other ways to satisfy this need. Laila said the following: “When a young girl doesn’t receive parental love and signs of affection, her lack of confidence and the absence of love creates an enormous void that has to be filled somehow. It is her attempt – a very unhealthy one – to fill the void caused by lack of parental love.” Nur claimed, “In my opinion, the young girl involved in the sextortion case is crying out for attention: ‘I’m here, see me, take care of me,’ but she does so inappropriately and abnormally."

Thus, it appears that all the school counselors needed to find an explanation, to identify the precise factors that led to the sextortion, but they all looked for factors related to the victim, specifically, her attributes or her family background.

Treatment of the victims

Victims’ Needs and the Counselors’ Response

The counselors frequently mentioned the extent to which they were worried about the effects of the abuse on the mental wellbeing of the victim, and on her social and family situation. According to the counselors, the sextortion cases led to prolonged absence from school, social isolation, and avoidance of social situations, and consequently to the victims’ reports of loneliness, sadness, anxiety, and deep shame. As a result, the counselors encouraged the young women to find a framework for private therapy that would provide at least a single one-on-one therapy session. Based on the conversations and meetings that the counselors held with the young women they were treating, they felt the need to address the emotional needs expressed by the young women. Thus, the counselors conveyed a sense of warmth and acceptance, strengthened the young women as they faced the task of telling their families about the event, and eased their sense of guilt.

Clara described a constructive moment in one of her sessions with the victim:

I hugged her, although this may be considered unusual… But… she truly needed it, and I wanted her to feel that she’s accepted, unconditionally and with a lot of love.

Similarly, Laila felt the need to strengthen the young woman and ease her guilt:

The first thing I did was to show her that we are on her side. I didn’t blame her; I explained to her that what happens at her age is that a young woman looks for someone to love her and that is all right; sometimes these things happen.

These excerpts demonstrate that the school counselors made an effort to provide an emotional response to the victims, encourage them, and ease their guilt and shame. They created for them a warm, safe, and accepting place where they could analyze what happened.

According to the interviewees, the young women feared coming to school after the sextortion incident to avoid dealing with the implications of the event, which included damage to their social status and possibly stigma attached to them by their peers. The school counselors explained that caring for these young women included recruiting social support to help them cope with their sense of loneliness following the incident. Achlam related the following:

She stopped coming to school and sort of tried to change her social image, but only one girl remained her friend… the name-calling and rumors continued in the long term; even when she wasn’t seeing anyone, her reputation remained unchanged.

Daniela, by contrast, described a different coping mechanism, where the young woman continued to come to school, but the counselor felt that the victim did not understand the complexity of her situation: “She continued to come to school regularly but was very depressed and at first found the situation very difficult.” The counselors considered the support of friends to be a significant factor in the victims’ recovery because it helped reduce the sense of stress and shame, and provided the young women with encouragement from their peers. According to the counselors’ reports, getting help and support from peers had a beneficial effect on the overall treatment process. Lili noted: “If there is anything [positive] to tell about this, it would be that this group created a [unique] fabric of social support that was very empowering.”. Daniela mentioned the issue of social support, to which she attributed a great deal of importance: “She coped. She came to school. She needed company quite often, so her friends were there and supported her.” According to the counselors, when the attempt to recruit the support of peers and friends was successful, it had a strong and positive effect on the victims’ condition.

In the Arab community, events such as these are suppressed and kept secret, therefore it is very difficult to involve the peer group and recruit support. Most of the emotional support for the victims came from the school counselor who carried out the treatment. Achlam, for example, talked about soliciting the assistance of the homeroom teacher:

I asked the homeroom teacher to pay more attention to this student and to come to me if needed. In addition, we conducted lessons intended to raise awareness of these issues and examined the meaning of friendship, but without anyone knowing that this was related to a specific student and event.

Thus, it appears that the only available support for the victims in the Arab community was provided by the school counselor.

Working with the Victims’ Parents

This subtheme revealed significant differences between the coping methods of the school counselors in the traditional Arab society and those in Jewish society. The majority of Arab counselors did not report the sextortion events to the parents of the victim because of their fear that the parents would harm her, even to the point of honor killing. For example, Rana described the situation thus: “No, we didn’t inform the parents, because it could endanger the life of the student. When I know parents don’t cooperate, I simply don’t involve them.” The counselors who shared the information with a parent did so only with the mother. Clara noted:

The father knew nothing about the event. Her father is very strict, and it was impossible to share this information with him… he simply would have murdered her without thinking twice.

In the Jewish community, the school counselors coopted the parents into the post-sextortion treatment process. Thus, Sarah had no doubts about including the victim’s parents: “Immediately, together with the school principal, we asked to meet with the mother to inform her.” According to Viki, the parents were the ones who had told her about the event and asked for her help, so that they were involved from the start. “I had to speak with the student and her parents and try to understand what they actually wanted, what their needs were, and after identifying these, I tried to understand what could be done.” Even in the case of students from homes in which parents were less involved, or from homes where neglect was evident, the parents were nevertheless informed. Lili was treating a student from a home with a pathological and violent background, but chose to involve the parents: “When we tried to help her and speak with her parents, the parents would have nothing to do with it and that’s when she explained about the violence at home. I reported this to the welfare services, and of course her father forbade her to have any further contact with me.”

There was a clear difference between the Jewish and Arab societies in reporting cases of sextortion to students’ parents. In the Jewish society, this was considered an integral part of the overall process of treatment, whereas in the Arab society, involving the parents posed a dilemma, and the decision to do so could clearly endanger the victim.

Working within the system and with professionals from outside the school

There appeared to be a cultural difference between the Jewish and Arab societies with regard to the workings of the school system. In the Jewish society, it was considered important to receive support both from within the school system and from figures outside the school to advance the treatment process for the victims’ benefit. The counselors conducted one-on-one sessions with the victim to provide personal treatment and recruited the support of the victim’s peers to address the social aspect, and they also emphasized the importance of involving other therapeutic figures in the treatment process. They conveyed the message to wider social circles, including students of the same grade level, whom they taught about permissible uses of the Internet, in an attempt to prevent future occurrences. For example, Sasha talked about working with officials from outside the school system:

Our job included bringing in an investigator who specializes in working with youths and, in addition, I and other homeroom teachers went into the classrooms and gave explanations, without mentioning the specific victim.

In some cases, the counselors referred the cases to the welfare services, which they considered a proper framework for providing the tools needed to cope with the situation, as well as comprehensive and long-term treatment and response to the victim and her family. For example, Achva said: “When the young woman was referred to a social worker, then the parents too were required to contact social services and, as a result, the family became involved in a more comprehensive treatment.” There were cases, however, in which the school counselors opted not to involve the social services of the welfare office. The case overseen by Daniela demonstrates the dilemma associated with referral to the welfare services, which in this particular case would have meant creating a substantial delay in treatment and missing the opportunity to continue involving the parents at school.

Once we send the report, the social worker calls up the parents and reads them the report, and we have no further contact with the parents or with anyone else about the case. Therefore, when there is cooperation with the parents, that is excellent. Involving the welfare office and having the child forcibly removed from the home is a process that takes years; we would be unable to help the student throughout this process, and the mother would likely have prohibited her daughter from attending school altogether. What good would that do? We managed to take care of things.

By contrast, counselors in the Arab community were highly aware of the implications of speaking openly about sexuality with students and of the tendency of society to blame the victim, which, in turn, places the victim’s life at risk. Under these circumstances, the Arab counselors found it difficult to seek help from the official authorities beyond the school, such as the police or the welfare services. Nur’s account illustrates this: “In some other society, they might have issued an immediate report to the police and the social worker at the welfare office. Here it’s not the same. In our society, you have to consider things carefully in such a sensitive case.” Similarly, Achlam was wary of reporting the incident to the police, but she did refer it to the welfare office, whose staff she claimed managed to keep the case concealed: “I prefer not to involve the police at all: that would be the last resort because they are not helpful at all. The welfare staff is able to help and operate without the whole world finding out.”

Indeed, approximately half of the Arab interviewees opted to deal with the sextortion incident by asking for assistance from the village elders or other adult figures in the community who knew the victim personally. Another tactic involved approaching the perpetrator himself.

Rana described appealing directly to the perpetrator to put an end to the sextortion:

I managed to find the name of the young man and the school he attends. I involved the school principal and the counselor at the young man’s school. He was asked to attend a meeting and we explained that this was a case of sextortion and it was a legal offense. He was told that if he did not stop, we would proceed with legal action. We managed to stop him and the photographs were deleted.

According to the school counselors in the Arab community, it was vitally important to give careful consideration to each case. Their familiarity with the case and with the young woman’s background and family helped them determine the best course of action. They explained that when they did appeal to figures outside the school, they did so with the support of the school principal, and occasionally with that of the regional educational supervisor, as a way of ensuring that each case was examined on its merits, providing the best solution for the victim.

In addition to mentioning the support they received from within the school, the counselors felt that their professional training framework provided a source of support, a place to air their emotions, which in turn contributed to their effective functioning and their personal wellbeing. It is evident that the organizational structure of the psychological counseling services, which includes guidance for both new and veteran school counselors, provided an important resource for the interviewees as they were coping with this difficult and complex issue. Nina mentioned the guidance she received from the counseling supervisor and from the specialist on sexual offenses at the psychological counseling services.

Working with the counseling services was very convenient. First of all the response was almost immediate and they consistently told me that I shouldn’t feel confused, but rather I should come back and consult and receive guidance and information. That was very useful.

It appears therefore that the school counselors perceived the treatment of victims of sextortion to require a systemic approach, which focused on the welfare of the victim. School counselors in the Arab community, however, were hesitant to approach the police on issues involving sexuality, for fear of risking the physical welfare of the victim, who might be attacked to protect the family honor and reputation. All the school counselors noted the fact that their role was to use the system for the benefit of the victim, to provide her with the necessary support and protection. They felt that their role was important in that they were able to determine when and how to involve other factors both within and outside the school, for the benefit of the victim.

Discussion

The goal of the study was to examine the school counselors’ perceptions of the phenomenon of online sextortion and to understand how these perceptions were manifested in their treatment of the young women who were victims of sextortion. Participants’ descriptions suggested that there was difficulty defining a case of online sextortion, and that Jewish counselors, who were less conservative, classified these events according to their perceived level of complexity. Thus, they regarded cases of sextortion as less severe than cases of outright physical sexual attack. Religion as such was not a factor in the Jewish counselors’ approach to sexting. This finding is consistent with those of previous studies, which differentiated between cases of offense in the physical world and those that take place in the virtual world of cyberspace, noting that the former cases are more easily identified, whereas the features of the Internet and the manner in which the online sexual offense takes place make the latter more difficult to discern (Lapidot-Lefler & Dolev-Cohen, 2015; Melander, 2010).

Jewish school counselors who participated in the study described the incidents of sextortion as insignificant, and reported that until the moment of the interview, they had not considered these cases to be serious. The school counselors’ deliberations and the lack of severity attributed to these events have to do also with the social and cultural climate, in which there is an obvious lack of clarity in identifying which sexual behaviors are considered to be a sex offense and which are considered non-normative but not a legal offense (Collins & Blodgett, 1981).

By contrast, for the Arab school counselors, any event that involves sexuality is considered severe and problematic. It may cost the victim her life, therefore the counselors described all sextortion cases, as well as the sending of explicit photos without extortion, as life-threatening. This finding is supported by the research literature, according to which the sexual activities of young unmarried Arab women are considered taboo, and any transgression is followed by severe sanctions, including honor killing (Jabareen & Zlotnick, 2021), which is carried out by a male member of the family (Ne’Eman Haviv, 2020). This was probably the reason why Arab school counselors avoided involving the victim’s parents, and if they did so, they made sure that the information did not reach the father.

According to the law in Israel, minors above the age of 16 have reached consensual age and are allowed to engage in sexual relationships, but they are prohibited from sending their own sexual content, and if they do so they are breaking the law (Tzadok, 2014). But because the sending of sexual messages is frequent and considered acceptable among youths, this law sends a confusing message and creates a judgmental attitude in cases of sextortion in which the victim innocently sent photos of herself. In the present study, the school counselors appeared to experience confusion as to whether the young woman involved was the victim of the transgression or complicit in it. The school counselors in this study described the young women as involved in the sextortion, reaffirming the social pattern of blaming the victim. Likewise, the school counselors’ concern with the victim’s social and family background was a way of attributing responsibility for the event to the victim, thereby absolving the perpetrator from responsibility. This trend coincides with that found in previous studies of treating the victims as if they had willingly opened the door to the perpetrator and the transgression (Penney, 2016).

Intervention programs in the area of sex education often focus on teaching women to avoid risky situations, but spend much less time teaching young men about their responsibilities and the social climate in which they live (Dobson & Ringrose, 2016). Moreover, it has been shown that with regard to the phenomenon of sexting and the sending of nude photographs, it is not uncommon to blame the victim for taking a provocative photograph and sending it to someone else, instead of accusing the offender. This attitude is evident also in the educational video clips that are intended to prevent incidents and raise awareness (Döring, 2014). These types of perceptions are liable to increase the sense of guilt and shame of the victims and prevent them from seeking help (Campbell, 2008; Shaw et al., 2017), especially if these attitudes are conveyed by the educational counseling staff, whose task is to provide support.

The findings of the current study demonstrate that the school counselors perceive their field of activity as dynamic and allowing for flexibility in their decisions to involve various professionals. On one hand, they are legally obligated to report cases of abuse that they discover, yet on the other, they allow themselves the freedom to deliberate and on occasion to avoid reporting to some of the officials, especially when they fear that this would harm the victim. This finding is consistent with those of other studies, which demonstrated that professionals occasionally avoid reporting cases of sexual abuse to the authorities because of uncertainty regarding the treatment of the victim after the reporting and because they fear the reactions of the victim’s parents (McKee & Dillenburger, 2012). In the cases that they did report, the school counselors sought the assistance of various professionals. Some of them viewed the authorities outside the school as sources of support that would be able to provide a comprehensive solution for the victims of online sextortion, whereas others referred to the complexity of procedures when reporting to other authorities, and noted cases in which referral to an outside authority caused the victim further harm.

These attitudes have already been reported in the research literature, demonstrating that school counselors avoided involving other players because they feared that the police or the welfare authorities would not handle the case effectively or because they had negative experiences with these authorities in the past (Bryant & Milsom, 2005). A study conducted in Israel found that one of the reasons why victims of sexual assault did not report the incident was their disappointment with the way in which the police treated the matter, making it more difficult for the victims, by having them reenact and thus experience anew the attack and abuse (Dolev-Cohen et al., 2020). It is possible that public perception and the fear of the pain inflicted by police handling of the case contributed to the decisions made by some of the interviewees in this study not to turn to the police. This issue is of vital importance for the successful systemic treatment of victims of online sextortion. Furthermore, it is clear that for the Arab participants in the study, reporting to the authorities is even more problematic, and that there is a need to maintain complete secrecy about the event. At the same time, if the authorities are not involved, the perpetrator may feel free to continue the abusive actions, which leaves the victims without recourse or treatment.

In sum, the Internet constitutes a convenient space for normative expressions of sexuality as well as for delinquency and abusive behaviors. With the increase in the phenomenon of sexting, there is also an increase in cases of online sextortion. It is clear, however, that educators and counselors are not familiar with the phenomenon or sufficiently briefed about it. School counselors must recognize the Internet as a legitimate space for sexual expression if they are to understand the negative implications of sexting and sextortion that could arise as a result of this activity. They must recognize that blaming the victim is unacceptable, that the experience of being subjected to sextortion is destructive and demeaning, that occasionally sending nude photos was done naïvely, and that the victims are under a great deal of distress and should be encouraged to seek assistance. Furthermore, the official authorities should realize the need for treating and assisting sexual offense victims and for creating culturally sensitive procedures for it, to address the issues in ways that are appropriate for both Jewish and Arab victims.

Implications of the Study

This study has important implications for the field of school counseling. The phenomenon of online sextortion is not sufficiently addressed. As the reports of the counselors participating in the study indicate, there is difficulty identifying cases as online sextortion: not only is there no clear definition for the term but there is also a scarcity of information about the characteristics of the phenomenon, its risk factors, and its implications for the youths involved in such cases. School counselors should be familiar with options for working with official authorities and receiving their support. At the same time, they must be aware of the tendency of these systems to blame or judge the victim, which could prevent effective treatment and support.

It appears that the existing intervention programs do not address the precise needs of victims of sextortion. Based on the current findings, there is a need for interventions that will allow for open discussions of sexuality at school, in an environment where it is safe to think, consider, express, and critique various aspects of this topic. For the most part, existing interventions are available in the Jewish but not in the Arab community, and currently, these tend to focus on information regarding the risks associated with the Internet. Clearly, adolescents need help gaining an understanding of the implications of their online behaviors and guidance to help them make informed decisions. It is extremely important to include content about the right to refuse to partake in certain activities, as well as information about ways to avoid undesirable situations. Furthermore, it is important to discuss norms and approaches to issues of adolescent sexuality in both the Jewish and Arab communities, taking into account their sensitivities to social influences, and teaching strategies for regulating behaviors (Marshall et al., 2020; Seiler-Ramadas et al., 2020). Finally, the school system and the education authorities should create a support network for young victims, where they can be protected while the full extent of the law is applied to the transgressors.

Study Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research

The findings of the current study demonstrate that the experience of online sextortion is complex and involves perceptions of guilt attributed to various parties. The focus of the current study, however, was on one party, that of the school counselor. Examining the phenomenon of sextortion from this perspective limits our ability to examine the needs of the victim for subsequent treatment and its effectiveness. Future studies should focus on the perspective of victims, the parents, and other figures involved in the therapeutic process.

All the participants in the study were over the age of 30 and some of them expressed judgmental attitudes toward the victims. Younger school counselors may be less judgmental, given the smaller age gap between them and the victims. Furthermore, future studies should examine the approaches of school counselors affiliated with various streams in the Jewish and Arab societies. In the present study, all school counselors interviewed were female and treated cases of sextortion of female students. Further research should examine how male counselors respond to the phenomenon and how educational counselors (men and women) handle sextortion when the victim is a male student.

ORCID iD

Michal Dolev-Cohen https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2311-170X