Sextortion: help for your child

If someone is threatening your child

1. Help your child feel safe telling you. Thank them for coming to you. Tell them the person making threats is responsible for the abuse. Your child deserves help, including if they sent an image or broke a family rule.
2. Stop responding to the demands. Do not pay or send more images. Payment does not guarantee the threats will stop or the images will be deleted.
3. Keep the existing messages and account details. Do not delete the conversation or profile. Report the account through the app, then block it. Do not ask your child to send you a sexual image.
4. Get help with the threat. Use the reporting options below. You do not have to resolve this alone or wait until an image has been shared.

Response guidance: NCMEC.

Report what happened

• NCMEC CyberTipline: report sexual exploitation involving a child, including threats over images. You can report even if you do not have the image.
• In the U.S., contact the FBI, call 1-800-CALL-FBI or contact local law enforcement. Outside the U.S., contact your local police or child-protection reporting service.

Be cautious of businesses that charge to recover images or promise to stop the threats. FBI reporting and recovery-service guidance.

Get support for your child

Keep talking with your child after the first report. Ask how they are feeling, listen without blame and help them reach a mental-health professional when they need support.

Help limit an image’s spread

Take It Down can help with nude, partially nude or sexually explicit images made when the person pictured was under 18, even if they are an adult now. It works with participating services; it cannot remove every copy everywhere.

Use the file already on the original device. The service creates an identifying code from the file; the image stays on the device. Do not download, request or forward an image to use the service. If you do not have the file, report through the CyberTipline instead. Eligibility and how the service works.

Reduce opportunities for contact and coercion

Start with what your child actually needs a device to do. Calling family does not require social feeds or contact from strangers. A game does not need open chat to be worth playing.

Review who can contact your child and what an app lets people send. Restrict or remove access your family does not need. A private profile alone does not make every conversation safe.

If your child does not need a connected device’s camera, restrict camera access. This limits opportunities to create new images on that device. Existing pictures, fabricated images and threats still need attention.

For a school device, ask which apps can use the camera, whether those controls cover websites, and who can change them. Ask what happens when a lesson needs camera access.

Make it easy to ask for help

Talk about these requests before they happen. Use words your child understands. Explain that someone may pretend to be a friend and then use threats to pressure them.

Make a clear commitment: if someone threatens them, you will help. Discuss family rules separately from helping them through abuse. Fear of getting in trouble should not keep your child from telling you.

If your child cannot yet understand this conversation or recognize when to ask for help, reconsider the access you are giving them. They do not need every feature just because a device includes it.

Lead by example. Ask before sharing someone else’s photo, explain why you decline an unnecessary app permission and show your child how you stop an unwanted conversation.