Young Everton footballers are reportedly being targeted by paedophiles on Snapchat who are posing as talent scouts and agents.
Adam Green, head of safeguarding at the Premier League club, said young players had been targeted on the popular social media app by men posing as professionals in the football industry.
He told the Guardian the approaches were usually done with just an innocuous name.
But they usually followed with similar type of message: “I’m from an agency representing players from Manchester and London, and we have offices in both places and we’ve been watching you with interest, following you, and we’re interested in signing you for this agency.
“Don’t tell your dad. Don’t tell your club.”
He also told the newspaper about increasing concerns with ‘sextortion,’ in which footballers are targeted online by gangs and predators in order to gain sexually compromising material of them.
Earlier this year, it was revealed footage of former England goalkeeper David James in an intimate position had been uploaded to the internet. Mr James was covertly recorded during a Skype call.
In 2015, another footballer on the England international team was caught up in a blackmail plot, after an eight second video of him participating in group sex was shared among friends on Snapchat without his knowledge.
The footballer, who has not been identified, went to the police after a demand for money was made by someone who possessed the footage.
Mr Green said Everton was teaching young footballers that their public position made them a particular target.
Some blackmailers had demanded up to £50,000 from players, he added.
Mr Green told the Guardian: “Everyone knows they’re the Everton player and girls will target them more so – and predatory paedophiles and predatory people who want to make a profit out of it with sextortion.”
