Imagine your 12 year old daughter committing suicide because she had been sexually abused and blackmailed by a man who had catfished her, originally pretending he was a girl her age named ‘Sarah’. This is what happened in 2018 to 12 year old American, Cimarron Thomas, who lived with her parents and siblings.

“Using a fake persona, (Alexander) McCartney contacted her (Cimarron Thomas) online, complimented her on her appearance, and began grooming her before she sent him an intimate photo. The court heard that during the first abusive interaction, he kept her online for an hour and 45 minutes, demanding sexual and degrading images. He told her if she didn’t send him more photos, he’d publish the ones he already had on the internet. Cimarron went back to school and did not tell anyone about the abuse. McCartney continued to pursue Cimarron and contacted her four days later using another fake account, saying: “I want to play one more time.” Despite pleading for McCartney to stop and being visibly upset, he told her to “dry your eyes” and involve her younger sister, aged nine, in a sex act. Cimarron refused and said she would rather kill herself. McCartney then put up a countdown clock, telling her “goodbye and good luck”. Three minutes later, Cimarron was found by her nine-year-old sister, who entered the room after she thought she heard a balloon pop. She had shot herself in the head with the family’s legally-held firearm. Cimarron was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead. Her family had no idea why she had taken her life and were unaware of the ordeal she had been subjected to. Her mother, Stephanie, told investigators that she might have been unsure of her sexuality. Eighteen months later, Cimarron’s father then took his own life. However, years later, the truth behind what had happened to Cimarron emerged.” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cm2yj24xge1o

Thanks to the bravery of a 13 year old girl from Scotland, who spoke up after being catfished by the same university student, Alexander McCartney, authorities were able to capture, arrest, convict and jail him for at least 20 years.

“Alexander McCartney from Northern Ireland pretended to be a teenage girl to befriend, then abuse and blackmail children around the world, often sharing images with other paedophiles. Some of the children were as young as four. Some had never told anyone what they had been through – until police knocked on their door. McCartney gradually admitted 185 charges including manslaughter after a 12-year-old girl he was abusing took her own life.” https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crejr8grr01o

As if the thought is too much to stomach, and I apologise to anyone who may be triggered by these harrowing facts, I believe it is imperative that all parents read about and pay attention to the horrors happening across the world and understand that our children are not necessarily safe in their bedrooms on their devices – phones, laptops, iPads and any other electronic tablets/devices that can be connected to the internet.

“McCartney’s crimes occurred between 2014 and 2019, when he’s believed by police to have targeted about 3,500 victims, mostly via Snapchat, all over the world, including in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S., according to the Press Association. The case against him in the Belfast Crown Court focused on 70 child victims, including (Cimarron) Thomas.” https://www.cbsnews.com/news/catfishing-alexander-maccartney-sentenced-us-girl-cimarron-thomas-suicide/

Young girls are not the only demographic at risk – our boys are being targeted as well, notably through ‘sextortion’ by online criminals pretending to be pretty young girls attracted to them. Three particular cases, which have been in the media in the USA, come to mind. These involve 15 year old Braden Markus, who died by suicide in 2021 within 30 minutes of being ‘sextorted’ online, and James Woods and Jordon DeMay, both 17 years olds when they each committed suicide in 2022, also after being ‘sextorted’.

“When police looked through James’ phone, they discovered he had fallen victim to financial sextortion, a crime that occurs when a predator threatens to distribute private material or harm a victim if they don’t comply with the predator’s financial demands. The scam is the fastest-growing cybercrime targeting children in North America and most commonly exploits young men, particularly boys ages 13 to 17. Sextortion has been connected to at least 30 deaths of teen boys by suicide since 2021, according to a tally of private cases and the latest FBI numbers from cybersecurity experts………The teenage girl who messaged him (Jordan DeMay) was really a group of cybercriminals that included Samuel Ogoshi and Samson Ogoshi, Nigerian brothers who in September 2024 were sentenced to 17½ years in prison and extradited to the U.S. The group of predators targeted Jordan and more than 100 others, including at least 11 minors.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/health-wellness/2025/02/25/teenage-boys-mental-health-suicide-sextortion-scams/78258882007/

The truth is, even people whom our children and we know can become predators in the form of scamming or sexual grooming. That said, there are many wonderful and fun aspects of the internet that have become daily common-use and necessary for work, learning, socialising and gaming for adults and children alike.

Most people do not realise the real dangers of privacy invasion and scams, which can lead to compromising your WhatsApp messages, the contacts stored in your phone, your personal and business files, your bank account information, and even access to your online shopping sites such as Amazon and other apps where money is at stake. Moreover, the risks posed by believing and further spreading fake news, as well as inappropriate content exposure, sexual grooming, sexual harassment and other acts of cyberbullying can affect all ages, including adults. Many children, especially teenagers, have little to no cyber-supervision and the adults in children’s lives don’t fully understand the extent to which they could fall prey because they, the adults, are also victims of online manipulation and abuse. 

Moreover, we can pay a high price when it comes to our digital footprint, as every time we post anything online, it becomes part of our digital footprint. Everything we do online stays online forever. If we delete it, someone could have screenshot and saved it already. Every “like”, comment, search, video watched, music listened to, and so on, all leave a digital footprint. What we do online today can affect our current positions at work and any job applications in the future. Our digital footprint must be a positive one.

Children must especially take note as schools, colleges and universities all look for social media presence of their applicants. Your past can come back to haunt you, so unless would not have a problem if something you have posted/commented on/done online were to be published on the front page of the newspaper, do not do it. Not to say you’d want what you share/post to be published in the paper, but you must be okay with it if it is. Like I tell the teenagers and young children to whom I give cyber safety workshops, “The online world is the real world on steroids.”

Which leads me to the cyber safety workshops themselves. In 2020, soon after the Covid pandemic began, I was trained as a trainer in Cyber safety by CyberSafe Ireland, now called CyberSafe Kids, https://www.cybersafekids.ie/, after which I designed an interactive Cyber Safety programme to help students, their teachers and their parents. I launched my online Cyber Safety workshops in April 2021 and by October 2021, I had reached 1400 students, teachers and parents from rural community schools in Westmoreland, Hanover and St. Mary in Jamaica.

After a long hiatus doing other projects, I saw that the need for literacy in social media and online use in general was rising exponentially, so I relaunched my cyber safety programme under the name CyberBright. In May 2024, I brought my workshops to 700 students in 21 class groups at Campion College and in February/March 2025, I taught another 550 students in 19 class groups at Campion. In September 2024, I also gave a workshop to students of Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist Dr. Tracey-Ann Coley doing their Masters in Psychology at University of the West Indies, so they might be able to use the knowledge about the online social risks to which children are exposed in order to help them.

My Ikigai (my purpose) is to bring Cyber Safety to everyone in Jamaica. While I think that it is a necessity to have Cyber Safety in the core of the curriculum within primary and secondary schools, I do understand this is a task which I cannot tackle alone. The efforts must be collective, beginning with the Ministry of Education and tertiary institutions, which would need to provide training for the teachers/trainers. In the meantime, I believe media is the best way to get this message out to the public: It is imperative for children and adults to learn how to navigate the cyber space in a safe and smart way. We need to stay Sharp and be CyberBright.

Please contact me at emmasharptv@gmail.com if you have any questions about cyber safety, would like me to conduct cyber safety workshops for you or are interested in collaborating to help all Jamaicans become socially cyber safe.