(WASHINGTON) -- The Justice Department has filed terrorism charges against an Arizona man for his alleged role in the growing network of online predators known as "764," whose worldwide followers use social media platforms to target, groom and push young teens into harming themselves and others.
They try to accomplish this by first befriending vulnerable teens online and then convincing them to share sexually explicit images or videos of themselves, experts say. That sexually explicit material is then used to blackmail victims into increasingly violent actions, and it escalates from there -- with victims' family members or pets threatened if victims stop complying.
Victims routinely end up being coerced into carving their tormentor's online monikers into their own skin, mutilating themselves in other ways, attacking or threatening others, or torturing animals -- all while capturing it on camera, so the videos or photos can be shared with others to boost one's status within 764.