If your child is being sextorted: what to do in the first hour

Sextortion is a crime in which someone gets, or fakes, a nude or sexual image of a young person and then threatens to share it with their friends, family or school unless they pay or send more images. The FBI says the people behind the money-driven version often pose as a teenage girl and target boys aged 14 to 17, though any child can be targeted (FBI). The threats are built to feel urgent and inescapable, with countdowns and lists of the child's followers.

Children in this situation are often terrified of disappointing their parents. Some have harmed themselves. So before you ask a single question about how it happened, say the words that take the pressure off:

• "This is not your fault. The person doing this is a criminal who does it to many kids."
• "You are not in trouble, and you will not lose your phone for telling me."
• "We can stop this together, and there are people whose job is to help."

NCMEC's guidance makes the same point: the blackmailer is to blame, not the child (NCMEC). Stay calm in front of your child even if you are not calm inside. How you react in the first few minutes decides whether they keep telling you things.

It is natural to want to make it go away by paying. Both NCMEC and the FBI warn against it. Paying does not guarantee the images are deleted, and a payment tells the criminal the family will pay again. NCMEC says that paying or complying "rarely stops the blackmail" (NCMEC).

1. Do not send money, gift cards, crypto or any more images. Do not negotiate.
2. Do not reply at all, even to say you have called the police. Silence is safer than a reaction.
3. Block the account on every app where it contacted your child, and report it using the platform's own report button. Do not delete the conversation or your child's account.
4. If your child already paid, report that too. Keep the receipt, the payment app details or the gift card numbers. Our guide to imposter scams covers calling the payment company.

The conversation is evidence that helps investigators find the person. NCMEC advises blocking the suspect but not deleting the profile or messages. Capture what identifies the criminal:

• Screenshots of the profile, the username or handle, and the profile URL if you can copy it.
• Screenshots of the threats and the payment demands, with the dates and times visible.
• Any payment account, crypto wallet, phone number or email the person gave.
• The names of the apps involved, in the order the contact moved between them.

• NCMEC's CyberTipline: report.cybertip.org, or call 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). NCMEC shares reports with the right law enforcement agency and can help with removal.
• The FBI: tips.fbi.gov, 1-800-CALL-FBI, or your local field office. Many of these criminals operate from outside the United States, which is why the FBI wants the reports.
• The platform: report the account inside the app (Instagram, Snapchat, Discord, a game chat). Platforms can preserve data that investigators later request.
• Local police: optional but useful if the person is someone your child knows, or if your school needs a report number.

Take It Down is a free NCMEC service for nude, partially nude or sexually explicit images or videos taken of someone when they were under 18. It creates a digital fingerprint, called a hash, of the image on your own device. NCMEC says the image "remains on your device and is not uploaded"; only the hash is shared. Participating platforms use the hash to find and remove matching copies on their public or unencrypted services.

You can use it even if the image has not been posted yet, and adults can use it for images taken when they were minors. It cannot reach private, end-to-end encrypted messages or platforms that do not participate, so it works alongside the reports above, not instead of them.

• Lock down your child's accounts: change passwords, turn on two-factor authentication, and make profiles private so follower lists are not visible to strangers.
• Check in often and briefly. Ask how they are sleeping and whether anyone has contacted them again. A new account with the same threats is common; block and report it the same way.
• Consider a counselor. A school counselor or your pediatrician can help, and NCMEC offers support resources for families.
• Later, when things are calm, talk about the warning signs together: a new online friend who moves the chat to another app, asks for photos quickly, or seems too good to be true. Our guide to online scams targeting teens covers how to have that conversation before anything happens.