ROY, Utah — It is almost impossible to comprehend: online predators taking advantage of our children for their own financial gains and leaving families in ruins.
It’s a fierce warning for everyone: Your child is quite possibly being targeted. In fact, it has become such a problem that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently labeled online financial extortion of children an epidemic.
The following is from a Utah mother and father who tell the story of their son, who they say made a bad choice and, in just a five-hour timeframe online, paid the ultimate price.
Lauren Glass, the mother of David Gonzalez Jr., says he was full of life and energy before he died by suicide.
"He was a jokester," Lauren said.
"That kid loved everything that had a ball. It was a sport that had a ball in it, he was natural at it and he loved it," said Brian Glass, David’s father.
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Those are now the memories Brian and Lauren Glass have of their son.
"We lost our son this past January," Lauren said.
David was 15 years old, a ninth grader at Sand Ridge Junior High School in Roy, and had just made the junior high school basketball team.
He was a regular teen boy who loved sports, video games, and connecting on social media — a typical teenage pastime that can be dark and dangerous.
"It's not an easy thing to talk about, especially when you have the outcome that we had," Lauren said.
On Jan. 7 of this year, David was contacted on the social media app "Wizz" by someone whom he thought was a teenage girl. Small talk that went from flirting over the app to text messages, onto Instagram messaging, and then specific requests using "Snapchat."
Lauren said the person "pressured him into sending, you know, pictures of himself, nude pics."
Once the pictures were sent, the sophisticated user on the other end revealed they were not the girl David thought he was conversing with.
"They made him feel ashamed of what he did," Lauren said.
And those screenshot digital photos were now ransom for the predators’ financial gain.
"If you don't give us $200, we are going to send all these out to your friends and your family and your teachers and everybody you know," they threatened, according to Lauren.
"What they did is, they made message screenshots like that, put the picture in there, and then put other information and made it look like they had sent it to his sister, his mother, his aunt, a friend, and I never received any of those. No," Brian said.
Embarrassed and helpless, David did not have the financial means to satisfy the extortionist and was not equipped to handle the situation — a mistake infinitely greater than $200.
"When they came down to the final threads, where it looked as if they sent it to us and things like that, that's where I think it was the impulsive, emotional," Brian said. "He had worked very hard to be where he was at, very hard for him, it was seeing all of that crumble, right? His only decision for him was what he did."
David took his own life at home while his family was watching football on TV.
"Our family has been uprooted. It'll never, will never be the same," Brian said.
The first message David received to the fatal gunshot wound were just five hours apart.
"So it is very fresh. Next month's his birthday, and we have the holidays, and already I'm dreading it, but he'd be 16 next month," Lauren said.
"And he's missed every day," Brian said.
Lauren added, "Every day is like it's a battle. It's so hard. I want to scream, I want to cry. I want to hit things all day, every day. So it’s very, very hard to keep yourself together."
Through the tears, Lauren told FOX 13 News that she has an undeniable fight in her to not let this happen to any other family.
"I can't just sit here and not tell people," she said.
She and her husband say knowledge is power.
"You can’t help protect your kids from something you don’t know exists," Brian said.
And every day and every time your child is on any social media app or interactive video game, they risk becoming prey.
"These individuals, these predators seek our kids. They hunt them on social media," Brian said.
In a two-year period between October 2021 to March 2023, the FBI received more than 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors — impacting 12,600 victims and leading to at least 20 suicides.
"This is, again, not a small number," Brian said. "This is not something that is just going to instantly go away and it's not something that we should just put our head in the sand on."
Brian and Lauren work closely with the Weber County Sheriff, detailing their experience to students and parents through assemblies and presentations. The detective on their son's case tells them that he receives 12 to 14 reports of child online sextortion in Utah each week.
Brian says hundreds of kids are battling this in Utah right now.
"We lost, and we don’t want anybody else to lose. We want people to start listening to our story. We need them to understand, to talk with their children," Brian said.
Experts agree the best way to safeguard your family is communication. Assume your child will be propositioned online, and make them commit to never sending personal pictures or information. They should disengage from the conversation and immediately tell a parent or trusted adult to help call police to file a report — whether it's disturbing requests, or if your child made a mistake and sent something now being used as blackmail.
Having that talk, Lauren and Brian Glass say, could have saved their son.
"Get out. Talk with your kids. Understand that this is an issue. It’s an epidemic that’s going on with your kids in social media, and if you're not willing to have that conversation, you're going to lose and they're going to win," Brian said.
Something extremely important to note: Never erase any conversations you or your child have had with a perpetrator online. Police can gather key evidence and even tracking information through those communications. David’s case is still an open investigation. His parents hope justice is served, and they will never stop talking about their son to save somebody else's child.
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For those struggling with thoughts of suicide, the National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline can now be reached by simply dialing 988 any time for free support. Resources are also available online at utahsuicideprevention.org.
You can also find resources about youth sextortion risks from the FBI here.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children also has resources that can be found here.
