The National Crime Agency has said that it is receiving more than 110 reports a month of child sextortion attempts, where criminal gangs trick teenagers into sending intimate pictures of themselves and then blackmail them

The NSPCC child protection charity also found that one in five parents know a child who has experienced online blackmail, while two in five said they rarely or never talked to their children about the subject

Groups that appeared between 2022 and 2023 are called midgen. In turn groups that have emerged since 2024 and 2025 are called "newgen." And they are active across a wide swatch of mainstream social media platforms and encrypted communication applications.

Examples of the oldgen groups are: CVLT, CLSTS, Kill All Sluts Kill All Retards (KASKAR), SBG, Anarchy, Nihilism, H3LL, Zone, Hive, Harsh Reality, XFH. Like the NHL, over the years the Com Network has expanded to include more groups.

In as much as we cannot use the NHL and the Montreal Canadiens interchangeably, 764 ≠ The Com Network. The Com Network also has its own version of the NHL's Original Six teams that formed the league. These groups are referred to colloquially in Com as "oldgen" or "OG" and refer to pre-2021 groups

The groups in the Com Network are the teams. In the Com Network, the most popular and infamous group is 764. 764 are the Montreal Canadiens of the Com Network (and this breaks my heart to say as a Habs fan.) In the NHL the Canadiens have the most championships and are an Original Six team.

The Com Network, like the NHL, is the overarching organizational structure and ecosystem. The different types of criminal behaviors and threats present in the Com Network are the NHL divisions. Where the NHL has four divisions, the Com has Cyber, (S)extortion, & Offline Com.

As two good Canadian boys doing their best to clarify the distinction between network, threats and groups, @petersmith.bsky.social and I turn to what we know: HOCKEY! The National Hockey League (NHL) can be used as an analogy for understanding the structural complexities of the Com Network.

C) Canadian Centre for Child Protection Survivor & Family Support
protectchildren.ca/en/survivor-...

D) National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
www.missingkids.org/gethelpnow/c...

8) Document any odd behaviour or interactions, report concerns to the school and local authorities if necessary.

Resources :
A) Talking to youth about forwarding sexts
mediasmarts.ca/teacher-reso...

B) Helping our kids deal with cyberbullying
mediasmarts.ca/teacher-reso...

6) Set clear rules on screen time and require periodic check-ins: ask to see chat logs, help them review their friend lists, do not let them take their devices to bed.

7) Work with the school: ask what safeguards are in place on school-issued devices, and advocate for stronger policy if needed.

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3) Enable or request from the school stronger restrictions on gaming/chat apps, ensure device usage is monitored and logged.

4) Keep the device in a common area of the home rather than a private space.

5) Educate your child about grooming, predatory behaviour and safe-chat practices.

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Steps parents can take now:

1) Check whether your child is using a school-issued computer or device for online gaming or chats.

2) Talk with your child about how they use the device: games, apps, chat features, who they’re talking to, how long they’re online.

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In reading court and chat records from the com Network I have identified several instances where the victims create their social media through school provided Gmail accounts and Chromebooks or computers. 4/

The school board has since said it is reviewing its security protocols around school-issued devices. This is not a one-off example of the consequences of school provided devices and emails. 3/

The parent noticed unusual behaviours: the child became secretive, spent long hours online, signs of self-harm, had unexplained changes in mood & device usage. When looking at what, where, & who their child were interacting with online, the parent found inappropriate chats & attempted grooming. 2/