Honolulu police and prosecuting attorneys urge parents to monitor their kids’ online activities after 12 sexual assaults of children 17 years old and younger by pedophiles who lured them into physical meetings.

The victims, between the ages of 11 and 17, met their abusers on social media, online gaming portals and dating applications during the past four months.

Some of the cases involve men trolling young girls on social media sites like Instagram, befriending them, then meeting up, getting them into a car and assaulting them.

Other cases involve men going after boys.

They are a part of a surge in sexual assaults of minors and sextortion that troubles Honolulu police and prosecutors.

“It can happen in folks’ houses, often plying them with alcohol and other drugs, (then) filming the rape, the sexual interaction and then threatening them with publicizing on social media if they say anything to anyone,” said Prosecuting Attorney Steve Alm. “The teens are subject to this kind of extortion, and it puts them in a terrible situation. … We’re really trying to raise awareness. We’re talking every week now, cases are coming into our office.”

Sextortion, a crime that lacks a specific federal and state statute, is being aggressively investigated and prosecuted with existing laws and is on the rise in Hawaii Opens in a new tab and across the country, law enforcement and nonprofit organizations have told the Hono­lulu Star-Advertiser.

In 2023 the National Center for Missing &Exploited Children’s Cyber­Tipline received 186,819 reports of online enticement, the category that includes sextortion. For every case that is reported to law enforcement, Alm warned, countless others are not.

Speaking to reporters at a news conference in the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney’s Richards Street headquarters, Alm said he and Honolulu Police Chief Arthur “Joe” Logan were there to “sound the alarm.”

“We want to issue a stark warning to parents and teenagers about what’s happening to your kids on social media. We have predators who are connecting to kids on social media; they are arranging to meet them in person, and then they are sexually assaulting them,” said Alm, standing before Logan and teams of their deputies. “Growing up, parents maybe worried about the park down the street, or they might worry about a playground and watch their kids there. Well, now parents have to do the same thing on social media.”

Joining Alm on Thursday was Division Chief Scott Bell; Deputy Prosecuting Attorneys Ayla Weiss, Thalia Murphy, Melody Kaohu, Chase Sakai; and Missing Senior Team Captain Rochelle Cusumano.

Logan was backed by Assistant Chiefs Calvin Tong and Brian Lynch, Lt. Robert Jones and Detective Jolon Wagner.

Prosecutors are trying to charge first-degree sexual assault cases against those who target minors, an offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

Logan said HPD has been investigating “numerous incidents” where adults are preying upon children by portraying themselves as teenagers.

“Sadly, these activities lead to the exchange of information digitally online, sexual material and even physical sexual assaults,” said Logan, noting that in the past four months, 12 cases are in “various stages of investigation” by police and prosecutors.

Weiss said other types of cases involve perpetrators reaching out to minors, particularly teenage boys, and “enticing them to send images or videos of themselves in the nude or engaging in sexual acts.”

The pedophiles ask their victims to engage in video calls naked or doing something sexual in nature. The images, videos or screen shots from the video calls are used to extort the minor so that the images or video are not sent to their families and friends.

“These cases are occurring to minors here in Hawaii. The perpetrators could be located in Hawaii or … other countries where local law enforcement do not have any reach. There have been reports on the mainland of juvenile males committing suicide because they cannot come up with the money to pay the extortionists or they are too afraid to tell their family or to ask for help,” said Weiss.

Logan said sextortion and targeting kids online is an international problem that law enforcement is scrambling to address.

Alm reminded parents that their children might hate intense oversight of their online activities, but until they are 18 they do not have a right to hide their phones or online access points from their parents.

“Preying on juveniles, younger people … is very serious,” said Logan. “It’s unacceptable in our society.”