The mother of a 14-year-old kid claims that after falling for a “sextortion” hoax, her son committed suicide.

Caleb Moore, a native of El Dorado, Kansas, started chatting to what he believed to be a “14-year-old girl” on TikTok on June 10 before the conversation shifted to Snapchat.

Morgan, Caleb’s mother, claims that after that, the individual allegedly gave Caleb compromising photos of herself, to which the teenager replied with photos of himself.

The ‘female’ then started threatening him, saying that he needed to give them a lot of money or else they would leak the pictures.

Caleb killed himself by shooting himself in his house after Morgan claimed that they had “made him feel like his life was over as he had made this mistake.”

Morgan says she was informed of her son’s death after his father called her, adding: “When I got there Caleb was still alive and breathing but they were unable to resuscitate him so they stopped trying as nothing was working.”

“He passed away in the house and it was very difficult because I wanted to be with him but they wouldn’t let me go inside as they didn’t want me to see anything.”

“I was hysterical and screaming and begging them to not give up on my boy and let me go to him. I was inconsolable.”

The El Dorado Police Department had combed through Caleb’s phone and found the discussions, but first the parents didn’t understand why he had shot himself.

Morgan said, “That is when they had gone through his TikTok messages and showed me the progression. It had stolen my boy’s happiness and hope in a 35-minute span.”

“Even’sent a photo of the gun’ to stop the threats,” she continued.

A’sextorion’ scam, according to the FBI, is when a criminal uses sexually graphic photos to blackmail a victim in order to obtain money.

Additionally, El Dorado Police Department verified that they had started a conversation on TikTok before sharing the photos on another platform.

In addition to stating that direct messaging is not available to users under the age of sixteen, TikTok informed LADbible Group that they are dedicated to making their platform a secure and constructive environment for teenagers.

They also mentioned that no one in the US is able to transmit off-platform images in their direct messages, and adults cannot send message requests to teenagers.

People are prompted to report the sender or flag the chat as safe when they receive a message from someone they don’t know. Additionally, they claim that TikTok’s messaging system lacks end-to-end encryption, making it unsuitable for users who want to communicate sexual photographs.

Additionally, Snapchat claims to have robust security measures in place for users between the ages of 13 and 17, with accounts automatically being moved to private and communication restricted to mutually accepted friends or numbers that are already stored in their contacts.

Families may use their social media platform with confidence and safety thanks to their Family Safety Hub.

Whether Caleb was using his true age on his profiles is uncertain.

Morgan now wants to encourage kids to tell a trusted adult if they ever feel unsafe on the internet, as she said, “I don’t know how to stress enough to children to tell someone your parents about it or another trusted adult. You just have to tell someone because they purposely make it seem like they have so much more power than they do.”

“You need to battle the false communication between the scammer and your child with open conversation with you and your child.”

An El Dorado Police spokesperson said, “Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Moore family during this difficult time. We are amazed at the incredible strength and courage that this family has shown through the tragedy that they have suffered.”

“We strongly support the fact that the family has made it a priority to share this story with others in an effort to protect the lives of other children and we intend to support this family in every way possible.”

You can give to the GoFundMe that has been established to support Caleb’s family and pay for the funeral expenses here.