Children reported a rise in online blackmail attempts involving sexual images in the UK last year, according to a leading charity. The NSPCC said contacts with its Childline service relating to online sexual abuse and exploitation rose by 36% last year, driven by an increase in cases related to online blackmail. Evidence of the rise in online blackmail came as MPs said that maintaining the status quo in social media regulation was “not acceptable”, before the closing date for submissions to a government consultation on online safety. The child protection charity said the most common examples of blackmail were: financial “sextortion” , where victims are tricked into sending explicit selfies and are then sent demands for money in exchange for not releasing the images; being threatened with images taken from children’s phones and turned into explicit images using AI; and being forced to send fresh explicit images by a former partner.…