BREVARD COUNTY, Fla. — A man was arrested after being accused of threatening to rape and kill a 14-year-old girl and hurt her family unless she sent him nude photos on Snapchat.
According to the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, David McGinness, 20, saw a photo the girl posted and started messaging her.
Deputies say the two talked for a brief period, but as soon as the girl learned that McGinness was a 20-year-old man, she stopped responding to his messages.
That was when McGinness threatened to rape and kill the girl and harm her family members. Taking things further, he showed the girl that her location was on through Snapchat, telling her that he knew where she lived and that he would be at her house in an hour unless she sent the nudes.
Deputies say they tracked down McGinness to Indian River County, and deputies there took him into custody. He's currently being held there while he waits to be transported back to Brevard.
"As parents, we want to allow our children to enjoy life but we also want to do everything possible to keep them safe," said the BCSO in a written statement, "So if you allow your children to use social media or things connected to the internet, please routinely check all of the parental controls, privacy settings, and any other measures possible, to make sure that people like McGinness can’t get to them."
According to an analysis done by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the number of instances of online enticement (the term for when predators try to solicit sexual photos or a relationship with underage users online) jumped by more than 97 percent nationwide between 2019 and 2020 alone.
