Money Crimes with Nicole Lapin - INTERVIEW: Sextortion with Brittney Bird

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

The digital world connects us in countless incredible ways, but it also harbors serious threats, including many scams. Sextortion is a rapidly evolving digital scam that's designed to exploit, shame, and terrify people, especially teenagers. One victim of this scam was Bradyn Bohn. In this episode, Nicole sits down with Brittney Bird, Bradyn's mother, to discuss how this insidious crime targets teenagers and the profound, life-altering impact it had on her family.If you or a loved one are a victim of sextortion, block the person immediately, but DO NOT delete any messages. To report child sexual exploitation, call your local law enforcement and visit report.cybertip.org To remove explicit photos of minors from the internet, visit takeitdown.ncmec.org To report sextortionists, visit https://tips.fbi.gov/home Scams, Money, & Murder is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. For ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Don’t miss out on all things Scams, Money, & Murder! Instagram: @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios X: @crimehousemedia YouTube: @crimehousestudios To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there, it's Nicole Labman, host of the Crimehouse Original scams, money, and murder. If you are loving this show, you don't want to miss our fellow crimehouse original podcast, conspiracy theories, cults, and crimes. Every Wednesday, you'll get to explore the true stories behind the world's most shocking crimes, deadly ideologies, and secret plots, from mass suicides and political assassinations to secret government experiments and UFO cults. Follow conspiracy theories, cults, and crimes now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen. And for ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. minors. It's a very emotional conversation, but an incredibly important one. Please use discretion when listening. As soon as the photo is sent, then they're immediately like, I'm about to ruin

your life. Send me money. In our case, Braden did send money. He sent them $300, and that was enough. We have to scream from the rooftops until everybody knows. Until every case, he sent them, kid knows you make mistakes, we help fix them. That is just, that's the way it is. Heart of my heart is missing for the rest of my life. As they say, money makes the world go round. What many don't talk about is the time it made people's worlds come to a screeching halt, whether it's greed, desperation, or a thirst for power, money can make even the most unassuming people do unthinkable things, and sometimes those acts can be deadly.

This is scams, money, and murder, a crimehouse original. I'm your host, Nicole Lapin. Every Thursday, we alternate between covering infamous money-motivated crimes and gripping interviews with the experts or those who were directly involved themselves. Crimehouse exists because of you. please rate, review, and follow scams, money, and murder, wherever you get your podcasts. And for early ad-free access and bonus content, subscribe to Crimehouse Plus on Apple Podcasts. The digital age has given us instant connection and endless information at our fingertips.

But beneath that convenience, the internet has also become a hotbed for scams. Sextortion is where predators blackmail victims, often teenagers, by threatening to release explicit images unless they send money. This crime is designed to exploit and terrify victims, and it all happens very fast. Oftentimes, like today's case, this scam happens before parents even realize the danger that their children are facing. Sexstortion is underreported, as fear and shame often keep victims silent. If you or a loved one are a victim of sextortion, block the person immediately, but do not delete the message.

To report child sexual exploitation, call your local law enforcement and visit report.comptop.org. You can find this link and other resources in the description for this episode. Our guest today is Brittany Bird. Her 15-year-old son, Braden, became a victim of sextortion, and tragically, the crime pushed him to take his own life. Brittany, thank you so, so much for joining me today to talk about Braden's story. Yeah, of course. I'm just so grateful that we have people behind us who want to continue to share this and help us get this message out because how else do people know? You know, we didn't. Yeah. So I'm just, I'm so grateful that we even have the opportunity to do that.

My God, I'm so grateful to you. Thank you for the good fight and thank you for doing what you do. to help educate other parents about this. I'm a brand new parent. And, you know, I feel like I'm already going to start crying with the entire story. I'd love to just start with a little bit about Braden. Tell me about him. So, I mean, you can kind of see we're in his space right now. He was a big baseball player. He played for years. We did travel ball. So we had the whole travel ball family. We've kind of, you know, all been together for the last five summers, all summer. So this summer was a lot different. He skied. He just started skiing. We have, it's called Rib Mountain, but it used to be called Rib Hill. It's not actually a mountain.

But a lot of people come here to ski it. And Frieden just, in the last two years, decided he wanted to ski. He was snowboarding before that. And he was amazing at it. He was doing backflips, front flips, everything that terrified me as a parent. But as a 14-year-old kid, he's like, this is awesome. He's super smart. Just such a smart kid. But, you know, one of those smart kids where they know that they can kind of be annoying because they'll still understand what's going on in class. He was one of those. I had lots of conversations with teachers, but still everybody just loved him. What were some of his hopes and plans for the immediate future? He had actually just told me, man, I think it was February sometime. He had messaged me and he was at work. He was talking

about how he wanted to go to college and get a good job. He's like, I don't want to live paycheck to paycheck. I mean, he's 15. So he's already thinking, and he worked at the grocery store. So he definitely had dreams and goals. And he was kind of, you know, floating. the idea of moving to like Colorado or something like that. And that would be awesome. You could be a ski instructor there. You could, you know, you could do those things that you love all day. And he was just really excited about his future. And he definitely planned on having one. I know that you have his last drawing tattooed on your arm. Can I see it? And can you tell us a little bit about his creative side and what this piece means? So this was actually.

And I also have right above that. That was the amount of days that he was alive. I had that added on. So I had actually taken, this was on a white piece of paper, and I took it to the celebration of life. And his art teacher had brought me this cube that he had made, not a cube, like a geometric shape thing, with this drawing.

And he colored it in, and that's where the colors came from. And I told her, I said, I just found this. And it's bolder last night. And she showed me the thing. like this is what it is. Like I brought it for you. I find his little doodling all over the place. I was looking through his just notebooks and stuff and he's 100% like me with little stars all over or hearts or squigglys. He was definitely a super creative kid. He had talked multiple times about wanting to try to do some clothing line tight stuff or skiers. He had big plans.

And you've shared that Braden talked to you about everything. And when you say everything, you mean things that you didn't even want to know as a mom. Can you elaborate on some of that closeness and what it meant for your relationship? It literally was things that I didn't want to know, but I'm glad that I did know about because our relationship was so close. I'm like that with my daughter too. She actually just turned nine in March. But for me, it's not about, you know, dancing around the uncomfortable things. We have to talk about it and have an actual dialogue about it

so you understand and I know what you're going through and you know that every step of the way I'm here. There was a summer where he had reached out to me via text message from downstairs in his room. He said, things are getting pretty serious with my girlfriend. We're going to be in high school soon.

I just might need something just to be safe. And I'm thinking, you are not doing this. You are still this shy little nugget. But okay, I'm like, I'm glad you came to me. And he kept saying, I know this is awkward. I know it's awkward. He said, yeah, it's awkward. But if we can't have those conversations, then I can't guide you on how to be safe and when to be safe.

And, you know, what types of things you need to do to be safe? And I said, so it might be awkward, but we have to talk about it. Last summer, I was at a concert with one of my best friends, and we were out of town, probably like an hour and a half away. I got a phone call at 5 a.m. from Braden, and he was very upset. He was crying, and he had told me that his girlfriend broke up with him. So he was on the phone with her, you know, all evening, and I was the one who he called when he needed. You know, that comfort. That's just how we were. Yeah. Sounds like so close. Brittany, I can't imagine what it was like when you discovered Braden's suicide note, which contain the words, make sure he gets caught.

You guys talked about everything. Did you have any idea what he was talking about? I knew when we saw the note that it was something that was not having to do with him or a girlfriend or a friend or a mental state or anything. He talks to me about everything. He's not depressed. He had plans that day on the fifth. He was going to go skiing because they had a snow day from school. They were trying to figure out why, why, why. So as soon as the police had brought the note up and obviously was in his handwriting and on the bottom of it, he also had on their Marathon County Cybercrime Task Force. So immediately I knew it was something online. We didn't know the contact of everything quite then, but I immediately went to the National Center for Missing and Exploiting

Children website to report the internet crime against a minor. I also reported right away on the FBI website, even though at that time I didn't know what exactly the crime was. But I just, I was doing whatever felt right after seeing that. And what can I do right now to get this started? Did you or your husband know anything about sexstortion involving kids and teens at the time? We had heard a story from like four years ago. It was actually someone that we know an adult who this happened to. And he was in his 40s when this happened. Never once did it cross my mind that teenagers would be targeted.

You think teenagers don't have a lot of money. This adult that had happened to, they first came out and said, you have to send me $800. So an adult brain, who can process that, isn't going to think, you know, oh, this is the end of my life. And I mean, it wasn't until, obviously, that it happened with us that we had any idea that teenagers are actually the biggest target. These predators often operate by approaching people on social media platforms like Facebook.

places where they can mimic familiarity by adding mutual friends of their potential victim. The goal is to make their initial contact seem ordinary and is designed to give their young targets a false sense of security. Once they've succeeded at that, these scammers guide their victims to more private, encrypted spaces in apps like Telegram. I asked Brittany if she knew what those conversations were like on Telegram or what kind of demands were made. We don't know specifically because our case is still an active case.

with the FBI, we don't have visibility to those messages, those chats. We know the time frame for the most part, but we can't see anything. They're just at a point in the investigation where they can't share that. And so I can't really speak to exactly what was said in our case. But the more I learn about this along the way, it's pretty much the same thing. These people go off of scripts that they're given by people who train them on how to extort people online. So it's usually the same thing, you know, you're going to be a pedophile because you have a photo of a minor, which would be the person who sent it. You're going to be on the sex offender registry for the rest of your life because you're a minor and you sent a photo. Parents are going

to hate you. Your team is going to be so disappointed in you. In our case, Braden did send money. He sent them $300 and that was enough and he was trying to get like Western Union transactions to try to give them more money because they wouldn't stop. So, you know, it is a financially motivated crime, but they absolutely do not care what happens on this side. Do you need a minute? Sorry. I want to give you a big hug I was not a hugger before this believe it or not

now I'm like I don't have choice okay are you okay to keep going yeah I'm okay so it sounds like the FBI got involved really quickly you were really quick to jump on everything logistically that you needed to do after you found Brayden. How did they help you understand what was happening?

Unfortunately, because this is happening so often, there's a ton of information that we were given as far as like support and things of that nature, but they really broke it down for us in how in every case, it happens typically, not every case, but typically it's just within a few hours and they they let us know that there's nothing you could have done. This happened from like 11 o'clock until 3 a.m. and that was it. They explained how the people who do this, it's essentially organized crime. They explained how it is scripted and they work in groups of people. One person will be feeding information from the victim's profile.

One person will be getting photos from another victim and one person will be writing the script on these text messages to these kids working as closely as we have with the FBI and local law enforcement and other parents who have been affected by this has really just opened our eyes to how often this is happening, how it's not often reported because people are ashamed. There's only so much we can do before it has to fall on to like these social media companies and things of that nature. That's another big piece that we kind of got from the FBI. They let us know it's going to be probably two, three years until we get everything we need because social media companies are protected. We have to translate information. And that was

eye-opening for us as well. It sounds like you believe whatever the person said to Brayden and it's not completely clear yet, made him feel like he had no choice but to take his own life. What do you think was the core of that psychological pressure that led to such a rapid, devastating outcome, right? It was four hours. Right. So I actually read an article last Sunday. It was out of the UK where a man went and spoke with these extortionists. And they said that one of the reasons why they target athletic, smart, successful kids is because they're more likely to feel that shame and be like, my teen can't see this. They're going to give me so much shit about it. I don't know if there was an actual threat that happened.

In my bones, I feel that he wouldn't have done this unless he was scared of something. But it could have just been the shame factor. It could have been. then saying, you know, your mom's going to hate you. Your team's going to hate you. You have a little sister. What's wrong with you? Could have been anything like that. They know what to say to get these kids to that point.

And it sounds like it's not over a long period of time or perhaps he would have told you something, like any inkling of it. It's just really quick and almost surgical. Right. It's almost immediately after they get photos, the demands start. That's typically, in all the cases that I have researched, looked at people I've talked to, it's as soon as the photo is sent, then they're immediately like, I'm about to ruin your life. Send me money. And had he ever told you anything about strangers approaching him online or on Facebook? No. Not at all. And we've had those conversations. I used to be a part of a Facebook group, and it was like a moms and technology group.

And when this first started kind of happening where kids were getting extorted, but it was like locally. So someone locally would take their picture and show it to everyone in school because of whatever reason. I remember telling Brayden, like, don't do that stuff. And he's adamant. I would never, you know. I trust him. And I believe him. And I think he was a 15-year-old boy.

He was acting like a 15-year-old boy and made just talk with the wrong person. What was the community's reaction to Brayden's death? Our community has been absolutely outstanding. The school, the superintendent has been with us 110% with everything. They set up a memorial in the library at the school for his friends. the celebration of life was on a Thursday they let everyone who wanted to be excused for it be excused we have our baseball fields that are being redone

and someone had donated one of the lights for the field which is crazy expensive to be put in Braden's name with a plaque and we have another plaque for him at the high school football diamond community members have like made things for us to hang around our home and they've been supporting us from day one absolutely and I just can't imagine how it would be going through this without that love and support and I understand maybe that's why some people don't share or report because maybe they wouldn't receive that and I think it just shows too just how absolutely loved

he was. He was just so loved. Sounds like it. It sounds like the entire community rallied around you and your family during this unimaginable loss. What was the moment or realization that compelled you to channel this grief and anger and sadness and everything you're feeling into advocacy and start fighting for Braden's law? I guess I didn't realize how huge this would get either as far as like the investigation. So initially I reached out to a friend of mine who's a reporter locally. And I said, please get me in touch with someone who can investigate and like help me figure out how this happens, why this happens, you know, how we stop it from happening.

Like I need someone who knows how to really dig deep and just like make it make sense. And I contacted that woman and we talked a little bit. And then after doing the first interview and seeing so many people saying, we never knew this was a thing. I talked to my kids tonight. We never knew this was a thing. And then days after that message is just trickling in saying, I heard your story. I told my son, he came to me tonight and said,

it's happening to me. Oh, wow. That was the moment where I was like, we have to scream from the rooftops until everybody knows. knows. Until every kid knows, you make mistakes, we help fix them. That is just, that's the way it is. And going back to Brayden's note, he said, make sure he gets caught. How did those words specifically fuel your determination to get legal legislative change? It sounds strange, but it was almost a bit of a relief to see that note.

Because we're sitting there wondering, why, why, why, what's going on? So to see that it wasn't something that we missed, initially, you know, I felt relief at that. But then as we're kind of going into this advocating piece, we know we're never going to be able to stop these people. Brittany knew that in order to protect other children, there needed to be legislative change. So in April of 2025, she brought Brayden's story to the floor of. the Wisconsin legislature, where they introduced a bill called Braden's Law to fight against extortion. The monsters will always be there. Putting this law in place will hopefully at least make them think twice about trying to come to Wisconsin, whether it be through the internet,

a cell phone, a game, or whatever, not in our state, not here, not our kids. I think that this having it put in place will at least pull them back. a little bit, I hope. The law won't affect our case, specifically ours will be a federal case. I mean, that's our biggest hope is that it's going to at least slow down this traffic that's just taking over our kids. What was going through the Wisconsin legislature with Braden's law like? It has been a really positive experience, honestly. Testifying was extremely difficult, but to see these grown men up there in tears because they can resonate with me and be empathetic towards me and any other kid that this could possibly affect was amazing

because you don't think that when you think politics, right? You just think it's all money, it's this. Our state, they just care. They care about our kids. And it just gave me hope that there can be a positive impact that comes from this. Passed with unanimous bipartisan support. What are the next steps in the legislative process? What are your hopes for the final passage? Yeah, next we go to Senate, and then when it passes Senate, which they said typically when it passes the House vote,

it'll pass Senate. And then I noticed it'll be signed in after that. and hopefully won't have any cases, but it's going to have to be put into effect. But yeah, that should be end of August, early September, they're thinking for that. And before Braden's law, sex-stortion wasn't a standalone crime in Wisconsin, right?

And penalties were insufficient at best. So how does a new law, Braden's law, specifically strengthen the framework against sex, So I think the current law, it's just like internet crimes or something along that line. It was like three to five years. So this puts extortion as a completely like an actual completely separate charge. And if it results in a death, it would be a class B felony. And then if the death is someone under 18, they're going to do an additional 15 or 20 years. So it changed from five years of. being held up for this whatever crime to this is the rest of your life too now. If you are found guilty of this, this is the rest of your life. It is a Class B felony, and that's, I think, up to 50 plus the additional pieces for age and things of that nature. How are they finding the sex tortionists?

They have to backtrack through everything. Usually they're out of the country, I think since the FBI has been working so much on cases similar to this recently. They've got it down to a pretty good science. They're able to get, even if someone's using a router that may be different or whatever it may be, but they have to backtrack everything through the online conversations, timestamps, all that data, cell phones. My old laptop is still at the police station as well, and Brayden didn't even use that, but just everything electronic in our house is gone.

I had to get this one. But it's a lengthy process. So that's a piece of it too, why it won't be years from now until we see a conviction out of this, because it does take so long to get that data. Then they have to get subpoenaed, subpoena records from Facebook and Pellagram. and then they have to go and translate that to whatever other country's language

to see if they've committed a crime over there as well as here. It's a very complicated process. And they tell me daily that it's lengthy because I check in often. Get ready for more of the gripping mysteries you love because Forensic Files is back and they're revisiting some of your favorite episodes. Come along as investigators. scientists and experts piece together evidence, clues, and data in search of the answers

behind violent crimes, unexplainable mysteries, and other strange occurrences. Listen to forensic files on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And the battle against these online predators isn't just in the United States. It spans continents. Many of these extortionists are overseas, and while bringing every single one of them to justice is a monumental task, progress is being made. Brittany has been in contact with one family from Michigan, whose son also died by suicide after being extorted in March of 2022. In 2023, two of the people responsible were extradited from Nigeria to the United States, and in 2024, they were sentenced to 17 and a half years in prison

for the crime of conspiracy to sexually exploit minors. They were tied to over 100, victims, including at least 11 minors. There's a third man from Nigeria who is also involved with this case, but he has been fighting his extradition. There are also five US-based defendants tied to this case who have been charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering. They were responsible for receiving the funds from the victims and often converted most of it into Bitcoin, at which point they would send a portion of the money back to their counterparts in Nigeria. So why did they do it? It's purely financially motivated.

I mean, $300 here is still a lot. But, you know, overseas in these countries but don't have anything, it is a ton of money. It's purely financially motivated in our case. I know there are other types of online crimes against children that are motivated more like violently and things of that nature. We were told that I was. purely financially motivated though. I've seen some videos of this group. It's called the Yahoo Boys. They used to be on YouTube. Their channel finally got, you know, shut down. But these guys would record

their first sextortion attempt. And they're laughing and they're joking and they're drinking and they're smoking and they're, they just think it's funny. They don't care. I don't know if it's because they don't realize how serious it is, or if they genuinely just do not care. It doesn't look like they care. Like young college guys? Yep, yep. Younger people in groups,

and they'll record each other, sending these awful messages to these kids, scaring the shit out of them, and laugh about it. It's not some big, brainy operation at all. It's not, you know, a bunch of guys in suits of storing them. money, like the mafia or something. It's literally kids doing it in groups from apartments,

campuses. Well, Brittany, I have no doubt that you as a mama bear are going to make sure he gets caught. How close do you think you are to doing that? On what I can speak to, which is minimal, we have very high hopes. that the person will be apprehended. We're still questionable on a U.S. trial. That's going to, we'll probably find that out, probably not even, you know, a year from now. But they have it narrowed down pretty close.

So we're hopeful that this person will be identified. And when they are, what do you think you would say to him? I think about that all the time. I just think that it wouldn't matter. matter what I say, because if these people are out there doing this, they don't care that someone's whole world just fell apart. And they don't care that literally part of my heart is missing for the rest of my life. And if I tell him that, it won't change anything. And he won't feel any worse. I don't know yet what I would say. How do you talk to your daughter about

this. It's tough because she wants to be so tough and she wants to be so strong and she feels like she needs to protect me. And if I'm upset, she will not show emotion because she doesn't want me to worry about her. But we talk as openly as I feel appropriate right now about it as far as what happened. I just told her that someone found her brother online and they scared him and did some really horrible things and he was so scared he thought he couldn't stay here. And I told her that and that was even probably a month and a half after because she wanted to download Roblox. And it was like you absolutely cannot download Roblox because people can chat with you on Roblox. All my friends have it. Why can't I have it?

I'll turn the chatting off. I said, no, absolutely not. And so then I explained to her that I said, your brother thought that he was in a safe space too, and someone found him. And I'm like, I have to protect you from that. I mean, she's only nine. It'll be

quite a while before she really knows and understands and before we can be that open with her, I guess, regarding everything. But as far as talking about death and, you know, things of that nature, I couldn't ask for a better kid. She gets it and

she will tell me often when I say, I'm just so sad that I won't see him again. She'll tell me every time, you will one day though, Mom, you will. Like, she gets it and she has that comfort in her heart because she, you know, believes that he's in heaven and she talks about him all the time. It's tough for her. You know, he should have been here for all of her things. And it was really hard for her, too. Her birthday was on the 8th. And he had passed away on the 5th. So his birthday was a tough one this year, but we're hitting by. What do you think is the most crucial advice you would give to parents and caregivers about their kids? online safety and potential threats like sexortion.

And what are you doing with your daughter to implement that? It sounds like you're not allowing her on social media or sites like Roblox. Right. When I did my first presentation for the city, one of the first things I said was this was this was the first year that we let Braden have his phone in his room overnight. We waited until he was 15 until he was a freshman. or like you're not you just can't like it's too much hold off on that as long as possible the entire world is in their room with them and you can't keep them safe if you don't know you're you're sleeping or whatever and i also made it a point to just to say you know your your kids are

going to do stupid shit everybody says my kid wouldn't do that not my kid mine wouldn't either then look where we are you can't have that mentality, they're going to do these things. They're going to do these things, especially because it's so normalized in today's society. It is so normalized to just send a photo with, you know, Snapchat and disappearing messages and everything. Know that they're going to mess up and be that safe space for them to come to when they do. I had just talked to Brayden two weeks before everything happened because he had gotten in trouble for something else. He was pretty upset. And I said, Braden, you are so much bigger than your worst mistake. You are so much

better than your biggest mistake. He said, you're going to be an adult and you're going to call me one day because you're going to mess up and I'm going to help you. That was, I was honestly just a couple weeks before. I think that adults and parents and caregivers need to know that the world is so different now for our kids. We have to get out of the mentality of, the mentality of well, I would have never done that when I was a kid. No, you didn't have a smartphone with everybody and their mother having access to you when you were a kid. We need to treat our kids as the times are changing, that we realize that, we understand that, we know you're going to do shady stuff. We're going to tell you not to do it.

We're going to prepare you for when it comes, but we have to understand as parents, they are going to do it. And even if it's not something as extreme as this, be that safe space for them. What do you tell parents and caregivers about some of the warning signs they should be looking for or other ways to protect their kids online? You obviously don't want your kids chatting with anyone they don't know, but that's near impossible if they have public social media settings. So that's a really big thing is check their settings, get into their stuff, you know. Another thing is iPhones, they actually turn off the parental controls when your child turns 13 and you have to manually go and turn them back on. That was something I did not know about. It's hard to say as far as warning signs and things because there was none in our case.

When I look more into stuff and see that there are sometimes our cases where it goes on for a little bit longer, and I think typically that is like teenage females. So they're extorted first for their photos, then their photos are used to extort teenage males. And I think that usually the relationship between extortionists and teen girl usually lasts, you know, a little bit longer until they have all the photos they want or need or until she stops sending them. So in those cases, you would want, you know, to pay attention as your child will withdraw on their phone more. being more private with their phone. I noticed at one point, Braden had got one of the blackout screens for his phone and I was like, oh, no. Like, we're not doing that. What are you? You're not hiding stuff.

Like, we're not doing that. So things of that nature in those cases. But like I said, in ours, there was just, we were sleeping. Brittany has become incredibly vocal about the ways that social media companies can do a better job to protect our kids. And she believes these platforms bear a significant responsibility in protecting children from these scams, especially Facebook. They know which accounts on their platforms are fake. They know which accounts are duplicates. There was after the case in Michigan,

they made this big post about how they deleted 600-something fake accounts in one day. They can do it. They have the ability to do it. They don't because the more users they have, the more money advertisers will pay them, right? Half of the users are fake. And they know about it and they will not remove them completely. I feel like it's a doable thing if they were able to remove 600 something in one day and identify them. And we had talked to another person who had kind of said the way that these people work is they will, go to school websites and then the like, you know, schools post, oh, here's our JV baseball team or

whatever. And so her piece was we should get the schools not to share that stuff. No, we should get the social media sites to be a safe place for these people to share that stuff. There shouldn't be an option where it's a fake account with duplicated pictures and no address or history. is reaching out to people privately. That shouldn't be a scenario that's going on, and it's definitely something they can end. And I know with a lot of, like, the messaging apps, they have the end-to-end encryption.

I don't know that's something that can be taken away. It makes it harder for the police to track everything. It's not impossible for them to track it, but it makes it a lot more difficult. And I guess I don't have enough knowledge on that to know if that is something that can be changed. Is there any part of Brayden's law that includes social media protection? And what do you think needs to be changed for the U.S.-based companies, at least,

because TikTok is a whole other beast to hold these companies accountable? There is a section, it's called Section 230, and I think it was put in place in 99 when the Internet really kind of started taking off. And Section 230 prevents social media companies from being, held liable to third-party content, which also envelops the messaging piece or the fake profile and contacting whomever piece. And I don't think that Section 230 needs to be taken away. If it's taken away, then small internet businesses are going to be affected by a negative review or whatever it may be. But it needs to be amended so it doesn't envelop that piece to let

let these predators know I can get through on this website because they're letting me through. They're letting me through because they won't get in trouble for anything. So I think that that really needs to be looked at and I know that there's been multiple times where it's been pushed forward in legislature and then it just dies when it gets to a certain point because social media companies have money and money talks. And one of our FBI agents said that to me once and I said so to moms. I will be as loud as I possibly can about this. Our kids are worth more than whatever the social media companies are getting.

You can't put a price on their lives. Absolutely. What else would you say to parents if they got any inkling or hint that their kid was experiencing sex distortion? Is there an important message that you want them to hear? I mean, first thing that I would say is don't make them feel. ashamed. If you feel like your child is going through this, or there's something they're hiding from you, or you do find out that, you know, this happened to them, love them despite it. In the moment, you're going to feel all kinds of ways, right? In that moment, but that moment is not

you forever. It's not there forever. We can fix it. And we can't let them feel ashamed, And especially, like I said earlier, because these things are so normalized, they know right and wrong, right? But that shame piece, especially for kids today where everything can go on the internet immediately, you're not getting bullied at school and then get a break at home. When you're getting bullied, it is constant. So I think just reminding them that, you know, we can fix this. Are there resources that you would urge them to reach out to? If there's any sign whatsoever, what were the resources that you hit that would be the most important for them to do to? Some sites are, it's called Take It Down.

If you go to this Take It Down website, it's usually best to do it as soon as possible. You would put the information for your image, upload it to the website, and they can scrub it from anywhere. Any other site that it's been on, obviously if it's already on someone's phone, I don't know that they can take it from there, but that would be the first step, right? We're going to take it down. And you would want to report at the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children website, the more reports they get, the more serious they're going to take this. I also reported on the FBI website, but I think that's linked with the NECMEC website. You report right away. That's the biggest thing. Let your kid know this is not their fault. They are a victim.

Someone coerced them and tricked them into thinking they could trust this person, and then they tore it all away in seconds. Your child is a victim, and they need you to stand up for them and fight for them and not be angry at them. Braden's story has already made such a profound impact, Brittany. You've led significant legislative change. you've continued to spread messages for other families potentially dealing with this. Zooming out what do you hope ultimately Raiden's lasting legacy will be? I just want people to just remember how happy he was and how goofy and how strong and how smart and how these people contact the kids

who feel like they have everything to lose. I want people to remember that he had plans to live. He had plans to get married and have babies. He wanted to do all those things. And he was going to do them all until this happened. So that, I guess, for me, I don't want people to think of, you know, Braden as the kid who I don't think they do.

But as the kid who sent a picture, I want them to remember him as the kid who was amazing. And now his life is going to change others because it's going to save them along the way. What do you think is the most important thing today that individuals can do to protect future generations from an evolving threat? If somebody's listening and they don't even have kids, but they're outraged and they're crying right there with you, what can we do? Keep talking about it. Keep sharing it. Every time that I speak to someone knew about it, the first thing I hear is, I didn't know this was a thing. We didn't know either. The only way that we can continue to let other moms, dads, grandparents, teenagers know is keep talking about it, keep advocating about it, keep fighting for justice for these kids. kids, I just can't imagine not speaking to it. But I do understand why some people might be ashamed. I've never been ashamed of my son. I'm going to keep talking about it until everybody knows that this is a thing. Thank you. Thank you for doing that. Are you seeing just in the

pace that scams change and evolve online with new technology and new regulations, are you seeing it already morph into something else? One of the things that I've kind of been more aware of now, and I don't think it's anything specific to sex-ortion or people getting caught, I think it's just because of technology changing, is a lot of people are starting to use AI to generate these false images of underage kids. You know, like I had said earlier, they're never going to stop. The monsters will always be there.

We have to fight back. And the way we fight back is telling everybody and hopefully pushing to modify Section 230. I mean, I think that the AI piece is separate in a way just because that's how technology is advancing. So they're finding, like, you know, the quickest ways to do this. and they're following it just as much as we are. Yeah, I did another episode with a girlfriend my age, also worked in the media who is sex-storted through a totally fake AI-generated image of herself. And she's a tech reporter.

So she ultimately went after this person, got to the bottom of, I think it was Mr. Deepfake's website, just knowing how AI is, changing the world and how AI is going to change scams in the most devastating and scary ways, what would your advice be around staying vigilant in all forms of this? I would say I don't do this right now, but share as minimal as possible, I guess. I mean, right now, anything that I can share about what's going on with us and any advancement or speeches that are coming up and things of that nature. You know, I'm putting that on my socials to continue traction and just keep the conversation going. But obviously, the more you share about your personal life, the easier it is

for people dig into that and kind of get to you. I would not say that anyone under 13 should have a cell phone. I think 13 is even pushing it. I mean, going through teenagedom with my son, From 13, about 12 and a half to 14, they're not running on all cylinders. They're, you know, they have hormones. Everything is just out of whack. They're very emotional. And then you're going to put a smartphone in their hand and say, well, here, your algorithm will pick up this, that, whatever. Everyone can reach out to you.

It's just not keeping cell phones out of hands of the youth for as long as you can. Amen. And just sharing minimal, you know, or putting your things to provide it. It could be as simple as that. If you could speak directly to Brayden today, knowing everything that's happened and the change that he and you have inspired, what would you say? I tell him often, actually, you know, sorry. I tell him that I'm glad that he was able to go. out with a bang, but I wish it didn't have to be this way. I just tell him how loved he is and how

he's changing the world. He's literally saving lives. I just wish he would have stayed. I do. Brittany, thank you so much again for being with us and sharing Braden's story. You are so courageous, my God. Thank you so much for also just your tireless advocacy. It's so crucial to spread the awareness. Like I said, I can't imagine not speaking to it. And every time I hear I shared your story and so it helped so and so, I'm like, thank God, because although a Braden's not here anymore, if someone else is because of him, like, that's a silver lining, right? Scams Money and Murder is hosted by me, Nicole Laffin, and is a crimehouse original

powered by Pave Studios. Our guest today was Brittany Bird. If you're a victim of sexstortion, block the person immediately, but do not delete any messages. To report child sexual exploitation, call your local law enforcement and visit report.cybertip.org.

You can find this link and other resources in the description for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I'm your host, Nicole Lapin. Scams, Money, and Murder is a Crimehouse Original. Join me every Thursday for a brand new episode. Here at Crimehouse, we want to thank each and every one of you

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