Aurora police investigating "sextortion" case involving students
Aurora police confirm an investigation is underway involving high school students and what may be a case of Instagram sextortion.
It appears some students are being told to pay up or risk having some intimate photos they took or possibly A.I. generated photos of them released.
Cortnie Granger has a son at Rangeview High School and says when she heard about the investigation, she had to talk to her son.
"Just making sure, one, he's aware of it. And two, he feels safe communicating with me about it. And making sure that he thinks three times before sending anything inappropriate to anyone and hoping that he can be there as a support for friends. If somebody feels comfortable going to him to talk to him about it as well," said Granger.
She says her son hadn't heard of the Instagram account but other students had. Like one female student who did not want to be identified.
"It's horrible you know? I couldn't imagine being in such a vulnerable position," she said.
Her school newspaper the Rangeview Raider Review broke the story that Aurora police are investigating the possible sextortion.
An Instagram account was allegedly operating as a revenge porn site. Victims had to pay to remove photos of themselves and others had to pay to view the photos. The account was also allegedly paying users to submit photos of victims.
The article says the investigation involves one hundred students in Aurora from multiple schools and districts. Including a dozen victims from Rangeview.
Aurora police confirmed it's investigating and verified everything in the article.
"I truly hope that the police do something about it because it's an ongoing problem and it needs to be stopped," said the unidentified student.
Cortnie Granger says she thinks it's an unfortunate sign of the world we live in.
"It's sad to me, and I guess it's not entirely surprising just because of how social media has grown and just how everything is practically virtual now," said Granger.
Rangeview is in the Aurora Public Schools District. Cherry Creek Schools, who also has schools in Aurora, said it's aware of the investigation and are supporting aurora police but aren't sure if any of their students were involved.
