On February 5th, Morgan Moore of El Dorado spoke on behalf of Caleb’s Law HB2537 in front of the Kansas House of Representatives. After losing her son, Caleb Moore, 14, to suicide in 2025, Morgan has lobbied for more laws protecting families against sextortion. Caleb was blackmailed by international cat fishers AKA “sextortionists,” which led to his death.
Morgan said her son was one of more than 30 children in the U.S. to die from suicide as a direct result of sextortion. In addition, she said there are approximately four social media-related deaths every day, not just those related to sextortion.
“Sextortion is more than a scam, it’s intentional psychological coercion aimed at kids,” she said. Sextortion often takes place where adults, usually located overseas, pretend to be a teenager interested in the party and ask for nude or suggestive photographs that are then used for blackmail.
Under Caleb’s Law HB2537, which discusses “increasing the penalties for the crime of sexual extortion when an offender is 18 years of age or older and the victim is less than 18 years of age or a dependent adult, creating the crimes of aggravated sexual extortion causing great bodily harm and aggravated sexual extortion causing death and requiring the attorney general to prepare and provide educational materials and information concerning such crimes.”
Moore was joined by additional parents whose children were a victim of sexual extortion. Republican Representative Brandon Guffey, joined by video from South Carolina. Guffey’s own son, Gavin, 17, died by suicide after becoming a sextortion victim in 2022. Since then, Guffey has been a spokesperson for teens who have been targeted by similar scams. He introduced a law similar to Caleb’s Law HB2537 in South Carolina, known as Gavin’s Law, which went into effect August of 2023. Guffey stated he is personally suing social media platforms on which the sextortion took place. In addition, the 24-year-old Nigerian man indicted on charges of child exploitation resulting in death, distribution of child pornography, coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, cyberstalking resulting in death and attempted extortion was extradited to the U.S. January 27th. He awaits trial.
At the federal level the Combating Online Predators Act has already passed the House and will soon be voted on by the Senate.
A stream of the event is available on YouTube.
