Teen Sextortion: What to Do Right Now and How Parents Can Help

Start with safety, not blame

Sextortion is blackmail involving sexual images, video, or sexual demands. An offender may pretend to be a peer, create a fast online relationship, obtain an image, and threaten to send it to family, classmates, or followers unless the teenager sends money or more content. The threat may arrive through a social network, a game, a messaging app, an email account, or several services in quick succession. The urgent problem is the offender's coercion. A teenager who was deceived, pressured, or made a choice they regret is not responsible for the offender's crime.

The first adult response can change what happens next. Begin with a short statement that leaves no room for doubt: you are glad the teenager told you, they are not in trouble with you, and you will work through the next steps together. Do not begin by asking why they sent an image, taking every device away, or announcing the situation to relatives. Shame and fear can make a young person hide new messages, pay secretly, or stop asking for help. Safety improves when the teenager can keep sharing what the offender does.

Treat threats as real enough to report, but do not tell the teenager that publication is inevitable. Offenders often use urgency, screenshots of contact lists, repeated countdowns, or claims that they have already sent material to frighten a target into acting before asking for help. Some threats are carried out and some are not. The family does not need to predict the offender's next move before taking protective action. The useful question is what can be preserved, reported, blocked, and supported now.

If there is an immediate danger, a threat of physical harm, or a young person says they may hurt themselves, shift from account management to immediate human safety. Stay with them, reduce access to means of self-harm when you can do so safely, and contact emergency services or the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline in the United States. Do not leave a highly distressed teenager alone while trying to solve the digital problem. Reporting and removal steps can continue after immediate safety is secured.

Use a ten-minute response plan

In the first few minutes, slow the situation down. Ask the teenager not to reply, pay, send another image, click a link, or give the person access to an account or device. Put the phone on a table where both of you can see it without continuing the conversation. If the offender is calling, silence the calls rather than answering. A pause prevents an anxious exchange from revealing more personal information and gives you time to preserve the details that may disappear after blocking.

Next, capture the account information and the threatening exchange. Save the username, display name, profile link, platform, phone number, email address, payment request, dates, and approximate times. Capture enough context to show what was requested and threatened. Do not forward or create new copies of a minor's explicit image merely to document it. The messages, identifiers, and payment instructions can be important without redistributing the image. When uncertain, ask law enforcement or NCMEC how to preserve the relevant material safely.

Then tell one trusted adult who can help carry the work. That person may be a parent, guardian, school counselor, relative, coach, or another adult the teenager trusts. Choose someone who can stay calm, protect privacy, and help with reports. The teenager should not be required to tell the full story to several people in one sitting. One adult can record the facts once, coordinate next steps, and ask agencies what information they need.

Finally, report the account through the platform, make an appropriate report to authorities, and block contact after the useful evidence is saved. The FBI's current financial sextortion guidance advises reporting the predator's account, blocking the predator, preserving the profile or messages, and getting help before sending money or more images. These are parallel actions: a platform report does not replace a law-enforcement or CyberTipline report, and a removal tool does not report the offender.

Do not pay or negotiate alone

An offender may claim that one payment will end the threat. The demand may start small and increase after the first transfer, or the offender may invent a fee for deleting material. Payment proves that the target can be reached and is frightened enough to act. It does not create a trustworthy agreement or give the victim control over copies. Both the FBI and NCMEC warn that cooperating or paying rarely stops the blackmail. The safer response is to stop the private negotiation and involve trusted adults and reporting agencies.

If money has already been sent, do not treat that as a reason to keep paying or to hide what happened. Save the receipt, transaction number, recipient name, payment handle, wallet address, gift-card details, and messages connected to the payment. Contact the bank, card issuer, payment application, gift-card company, or cryptocurrency service promptly and explain that the transfer involved extortion. Ask whether the payment can be stopped, flagged, or traced. Do not promise the teenager that the money will be recovered; the provider decides what is possible.

Do not hire an unknown online fixer who promises guaranteed deletion, retaliation, identification of the offender, or recovery of money. The FBI specifically cautions against for-profit companies charging sextortion victims for help and directs minor victims to NCMEC's Take It Down service. A desperate family can be targeted a second time by someone who found a post or advertisement about the original incident. Verify organizations through their official domains and do not give a stranger the image, account password, remote access to a device, or another payment.

A parent may want to message the offender, threaten arrest, or pretend to continue the conversation. That can create more messages, expose the parent's account, or disrupt an investigation. Unless law enforcement gives specific directions, preserve what already exists and stop engaging. A calm exit is not weakness. It limits the offender's access to new information while moving the case toward people and systems designed to respond.

Preserve evidence without spreading the image

Create a simple incident record. Write the platform name, account identifier, profile URL, first contact date, date of the threat, exact demand, payment instructions, and any other accounts the person mentioned. Note whether the offender displayed an image, a contact list, a school name, an address, or another piece of personal information. Separate facts from assumptions: write 'the account claimed to live in Texas' rather than 'the offender lives in Texas.' Precise wording helps investigators understand what is known and what is only part of the offender's story.

Use screenshots or the platform's export feature for the message thread when that can be done without downloading or redistributing explicit content. Include the visible username and date where possible. Avoid cropping away the context that identifies the account. If the app notifies a sender when a screenshot is taken, consider photographing the non-explicit messages on the screen with another device or asking authorities for instructions. There is no universal capture method because platforms behave differently and the safety of the teenager matters more than a perfect record.

Do not ask the teenager to send the image to your phone, email it, place it in a family cloud folder, or show it to multiple adults. An image depicting a minor requires especially careful handling. NCMEC's Take It Down process is designed so the image can be hashed on the user's device without the image itself leaving that device. Preserve the original device when practical, but avoid making additional copies. Ask the CyberTipline, local police, or the FBI what they need before transferring any explicit file.

Keep the incident record somewhere the offender cannot access. If the account or email may be compromised, do not store the plan in that account. A short paper record or a secure file controlled by the assisting adult may be more appropriate. Limit access to the people who are actually helping. Evidence preservation is not a reason to create a permanent family archive of the teenager's most private experience. Keep what is necessary, follow agency instructions, and later ask what may be deleted safely.

Secure accounts after evidence is saved

Once the relevant identifiers and messages are preserved, change the password for the affected account and the email account used to recover it. Use different passwords rather than changing several accounts to the same new phrase. Turn on multi-factor authentication using the strongest method the service supports. Review signed-in sessions and remove devices or locations the teenager does not recognize. Check whether the recovery email, recovery phone number, or backup codes were changed. Account security reduces the chance that an offender can impersonate the teenager or erase information.

Review connected applications and third-party logins. A quiz, follower tool, game, or editing app may have access to profile information or account permissions. Remove connections that are unfamiliar or no longer needed. Check whether contact syncing exposed a phone book and whether the profile displayed a school, team, workplace, home area, or family links. These reviews are not an admission that the teenager caused the crime. They are practical steps for reducing the offender's routes to more information.

Consider a temporary change to usernames, profile visibility, direct-message permissions, tagging, mentions, and who can view follower or friend lists. Tell a small number of close contacts not to accept new accounts claiming to be the teenager. Avoid a broad public warning that identifies the victim or invites people to search for the material. If classmates need to know how to handle a suspicious message, an adult can give a narrow instruction: do not open, save, forward, comment on, or request the material; report it and tell a trusted adult.

Do not automatically delete the affected profile before reporting and saving the useful information. NCMEC's sextortion guidance says to block the suspect but not delete the profile or messages because they may help stop the blackmailer. After reports are made, ask the platform or investigating agency whether deactivation, a username change, or continued preservation is preferable. The answer can depend on whether the account was compromised, whether contact is continuing, and whether investigators need access to a report number or conversation.

Report through the right channels

In the United States, a family can report suspected child sexual exploitation to NCMEC's CyberTipline. NCMEC reviews CyberTipline reports and makes the information available to the appropriate law-enforcement agency. A report can be made even if the family has also reported the account to the platform or used Take It Down. Save the confirmation number and the date submitted. If an agency follows up, use that number so the teenager does not have to reconstruct the case from the beginning each time.

The family can also contact local police and the FBI. The FBI accepts tips at tips.fbi.gov, through a local field office, or by phone at 1-800-CALL-FBI. If there is an immediate threat to life or physical safety, use emergency services rather than waiting for an online report to be reviewed. Explain that the matter involves a minor and sexual-image blackmail so the report reaches the appropriate personnel. Do not minimize the situation as merely an embarrassing message dispute.

Report the offender's account using the platform's tools. Choose the category closest to sexual exploitation, intimate-image abuse, blackmail, or child safety rather than a general spam category when those options exist. Include the account link, the threat, and the law-enforcement or CyberTipline reference if the form allows it. Save the platform's report confirmation. If the platform rejects the first report, use its appeal or safety escalation route and note what information was included.

Different reports serve different purposes. A platform can restrict an account or content on its service. NCMEC can process a child-exploitation report and route it to law enforcement. Police and the FBI can investigate a crime. Take It Down can help participating services detect certain images using a hash. No single submission guarantees removal, identification, arrest, or an end to contact. Keeping a concise list of what was reported, where, when, and under which reference number makes follow-up more manageable.

Use Take It Down carefully

Take It Down is a free NCMEC service for nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos taken when the person was under 18. The tool creates a digital fingerprint, called a hash, on the user's device. The image itself does not have to be uploaded to NCMEC. Participating platforms can use the hash to detect matching content on public or unencrypted services and take action under their policies. The service can be used by the young person or with help from a trusted adult.

Use the original device and original file when possible. Do not download an image from a message, ask someone else to send it, or make a new copy solely to submit it to the tool. Take It Down explains that a person should only use images already on their device. If the family does not have the file, use direct platform reporting and ask NCMEC for guidance instead of trying to obtain it. The goal is to reduce circulation, not create another transfer.

Hash matching has limits. A participating service needs to use the matching system, and a substantially changed image may not match the original hash. Private or encrypted communications may not be visible to the service in the same way as public content. A successful submission therefore does not mean every copy everywhere has been erased. Continue reporting specific locations where the image appears and preserve the URLs or account identifiers without repeatedly viewing or downloading the material.

For a person who was 18 or older in the image, NCMEC directs adults toward resources such as StopNCII.org rather than Take It Down. Age is based on when the image was taken, not the person's current age. If someone is now an adult but the image was created when they were a minor, Take It Down may still be relevant. When the date or eligibility is uncertain, use the official support information rather than guessing or sending the image to a third party for an opinion.

Respond if the image has already been shared

If an image appears online, record the exact URL, account name, platform, date, and time. Use the service's report process for intimate imagery or child sexual exploitation. Do not save the image again when the location and surrounding post can be documented without doing so. Ask a trusted adult to handle repeated checking so the teenager is not required to search for the image. One planned review is different from continuously scanning every account and reliving the threat.

The FTC's image-based abuse guidance recommends reporting blackmail to law enforcement, ignoring demands, cutting off contact, and speaking with someone trusted. Its current guidance also points families involving a minor to NCMEC's CyberTipline. Use those official routes together with platform removal forms. A search engine may also have a process for removing certain explicit personal images from search results, but removing a result from search does not remove the content from the hosting site.

Prepare a short instruction for friends or relatives who receive the material: do not forward it, do not reply to the offender, do not send money, do not ask the teenager for details, and report the account or message. They can preserve the sender's username and the non-explicit threat while avoiding another copy of the image. A supportive message to the teenager can be simple: 'I received something abusive, I reported it, and I will not share it.' This prevents gossip from becoming another source of harm.

The FTC reported in October 2026 that covered platforms have removal obligations under the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act for certain nonconsensual intimate depictions, including explicit images of children and AI-generated deepfakes. The law does not make instant universal removal certain, and platform procedures may differ while implementation continues. Use the platform's current official reporting form, keep the confirmation, and escalate a failure through NCMEC or law enforcement. This guide does not determine whether a particular image or platform falls within a legal definition.

Help a teenager tell the story once

A teenager may disclose the event in fragments. They may first mention a hacked account, a demand for money, or a fake profile without naming the sexual threat. Do not force a complete account immediately. Ask only what is needed for safety and reporting: whether the person is still contacting them, whether money or more images were demanded, whether the person claims to know their location, whether anything was posted, and whether the teenager feels safe right now. More detailed questions can follow with the appropriate professional.

Use neutral language. Ask, 'What did the account say would happen?' rather than, 'Why did you believe them?' Ask, 'What information does the account appear to have?' rather than, 'What else did you give away?' This wording obtains facts without turning the conversation into an interrogation. It also helps separate the teenager's actions from the offender's deliberate manipulation. A person can have sent an image voluntarily at first and still become the victim of criminal blackmail afterward.

Write a concise timeline with the teenager's permission. Read it back and correct errors. Mark uncertain times as approximate. Avoid adding theories about who the offender is, whether the image is real, or where the offender lives. A good timeline reduces the number of times the teenager must repeat the account and helps adults notice new contact from related usernames. It should be a working factual record, not a document shared around the family.

Let the teenager keep some choices. They may choose which trusted adult sits with them, whether a parent or another adult makes a call, and when to take a short break between reports. Adults still need to act when a minor is in danger, but choice within the process can restore a measure of control. Explain each step before taking the phone, opening an account, or contacting the school. Surprises can feel like another loss of privacy.

Plan for school and peer contact

School involvement should have a defined purpose. Contact the counselor, principal, or safeguarding lead when the offender is a student, the threats involve classmates, the image is circulating among students, or the teenager needs attendance, assignment, or safety support. Ask who will receive the information, what the school must report, how it will limit unnecessary disclosure, and what immediate steps it can take. Do not send the explicit image to school staff unless law enforcement gives clear instructions for lawful handling.

Request a practical plan for the next school day. It may include a named adult, a private place to regroup, a way to leave class without explaining the situation publicly, limits on contact with another student, and a procedure for reporting new sharing. Decide how absences or missed work will be described to teachers who do not need the details. A teenager should not have to recount the incident at every classroom door to receive temporary support.

If peers are receiving messages, the school's instruction should discourage possession and redistribution. Students can be told to stop, avoid forwarding or saving the image, record the sender's account information if they can do so without copying the content, report the message through the platform, and tell an adult. Public assemblies or broad emails can accidentally identify the teenager through context. Ask the school to use general safety language unless a narrower disclosure is necessary and authorized.

Do not promise that school gossip will disappear immediately. Instead, identify two or three people the teenager can contact and decide how the family will handle questions. A short response such as 'Someone is using private material to harass me; adults are handling it, and I am not discussing it' can end some conversations. The teenager does not owe classmates proof, an explanation, or an account of the image.

Watch for impersonation and follow-up scams

An offender may create new accounts after being blocked, pretend to be a friend, or claim to be a platform employee, investigator, hacker, or removal specialist. Tell the teenager not to accept urgent new contacts about the incident without checking them with the assisting adult. Real agencies can be contacted through published official numbers and websites. Do not trust a phone number, badge image, or case link sent by the same account that made the threat.

Be cautious with messages claiming that the image has been found and can be deleted for a fee. The sender may be the original offender, an associate, or an unrelated scammer. Do not pay for a screenshot as proof, click a file, or provide login credentials. Record the username and report the approach. Free official resources include NCMEC, Take It Down, platform reporting systems, the FBI, and local law enforcement. Their involvement does not require giving a stranger remote control of the device.

Friends can also be impersonated. Verify a request through a separate route already known to the teenager, such as calling a saved number or speaking in person. Do not use the contact information supplied in the suspicious message. A family may temporarily agree that sensitive questions will never be handled through a new account. This simple rule creates friction against an offender who relies on speed and confusion.

Keep a brief log of new approaches, but do not let monitoring occupy every hour. Check the relevant accounts at planned times, preserve new identifiers, report them, and then return attention to ordinary activities and support. If contact becomes persistent, includes location information, or moves toward physical threats, update law enforcement promptly. A change in the pattern can matter even when each individual message resembles the original demand.

Support recovery without turning home into surveillance

After the urgent reports, the teenager may be frightened, angry, embarrassed, numb, or focused on whether friends know. Reactions can change across the day. Offer food, sleep, ordinary company, and a choice about who is nearby. Avoid repeatedly asking whether they are 'over it.' The family can take the situation seriously without making it the only topic in the house. Predictable routines provide a break from the offender's manufactured emergency.

A short-term safety agreement may include showing a parent any new message connected to the incident, pausing contact from unknown accounts, and checking privacy settings together. Set a review date. Do not convert the event into indefinite access to every conversation and friendship unless there is a specific ongoing safety reason. Overbroad surveillance can discourage future disclosure and confuse protection with punishment. The goal is to interrupt the offender's access while helping the teenager regain appropriate control.

Offer qualified support when distress is persistent, daily functioning changes, sleep collapses, the teenager avoids school, or they ask for someone outside the family. A pediatrician, licensed mental-health professional, school counselor, victim advocate, or NCMEC support resource may be appropriate. This guide cannot diagnose a response or choose treatment. When contacting a professional, ask about confidentiality, mandatory reporting, experience with online sexual exploitation, and how records are handled.

Check directly and calmly for immediate safety if the teenager seems hopeless or says others would be better off without them. Asking about safety does not accuse them of anything. Stay present and use emergency or crisis support when needed. The digital tasks are secondary to keeping the young person alive and connected. An image, payment, or rumor can be addressed over time; no online threat is worth a life.

Know what the current numbers do and do not mean

NCMEC reported in 2026 that it received more than 50,000 reports of financially motivated sextortion in 2025, averaging 137 reports per day, compared with more than 36,000 reports in 2024. Those figures describe reports received by one organization, not a count of every victim or offender. Some incidents may be unreported, and reporting categories and sources matter. The numbers show that the problem is substantial; they do not predict what will happen in one teenager's case.

NCMEC also reported that when the relationship to the victim was known, 94 percent of public sextortion reports came from the child victim or a parent, with many submitted directly by children. This supports making reporting routes understandable to young people, but it does not mean a child should manage the process alone. A report from a teenager can be the first step toward adult assistance, removal support, and law-enforcement review.

Earlier FBI and Homeland Security Investigations data described more than 13,000 reports of online financial sextortion of minors from October 2021 through March 2023, involving at least 12,600 victims and at least 20 suicides. These historical figures are serious and should be presented with their dates. They are not a current annual rate and should not be combined with newer NCMEC totals as if the systems measured the same thing. Different agencies, periods, definitions, and report sources can produce different totals.

Statistics can help adults understand urgency, but they should not dominate the first conversation with a teenager. A frightened young person does not need a lecture about trends. They need to know that other people have faced this crime, official help exists, and the next actions are clear. Use data for planning and education after immediate safety is addressed, not to make the teenager feel that a terrible outcome is inevitable.

Prepare before a crisis without using scare tactics

Families can discuss sextortion before it occurs without asking children to imagine graphic details. Explain that an online contact may use a fake identity, move a conversation to a private app, request an image, and then demand money or more content. The family rule can be simple: if anyone makes a sexual request or threat, stop, do not pay, and tell a trusted adult. The child will receive help rather than punishment for coming forward.

Practice a disclosure sentence: 'Someone online is threatening me and I need help before I answer.' A teenager may find it easier to text that sentence, write it on paper, or show a trusted adult a non-explicit part of the conversation. Decide in advance which adults are available if a parent is at work, traveling, or not the person the teenager can approach first. A usable plan includes more than one safe route.

Review privacy and account security as a shared household task, not a search for misconduct. Check multi-factor authentication, recovery methods, connected apps, direct-message permissions, location sharing, public friend lists, and the personal details visible in profiles. Keep necessary communication available. Security improves when a teenager understands the reason for each setting and can ask for changes as platforms evolve.

Do not promise that perfect settings or refusal to share images can eliminate all risk. Offenders may use hacked material, altered photos, AI-generated deepfakes, impersonation, or false claims. Prevention education should reduce opportunities and speed up disclosure without suggesting that victims failed a test. The core protection is a trusted route to help when something unexpected happens.

Use a written family response checklist

Keep the checklist short enough to use under stress. First: stay with the teenager and check immediate safety. Second: stop replying, paying, or sending content. Third: preserve usernames, messages, demands, and payment details without copying the explicit image. Fourth: secure accounts. Fifth: report to the platform, CyberTipline, and appropriate law enforcement. Sixth: use Take It Down when eligible. Seventh: plan support for school, peers, and emotional recovery.

Beside each action, write who will do it. One adult might handle the CyberTipline and police reports, another might manage platform reports, and the teenager might choose the trusted friend who should know. Assigning roles prevents several adults from repeatedly questioning the teenager or sending conflicting messages. It also shows what remains unfinished without requiring constant discussion.

Record confirmation numbers, dates, and outcomes. Note whether an account was removed, whether a report is pending, whether a new username appeared, and when the family will review again. Do not measure success only by immediate deletion. Early success may mean the teenager is safe, no more money or images were sent, accounts are secured, evidence is preserved, and official reports are in motion.

End the checklist with ordinary care: eat, sleep, attend to immediate school or work needs, and identify the next person to contact if distress increases. A procedural list should support the family, not become a demand to solve every problem overnight. Work through the highest-risk items, schedule follow-up, and allow the teenager periods when no one is discussing the incident.

Understand legal help without expecting guarantees

Sextortion may involve several criminal and civil legal issues, but a family should not attempt to classify every offense before reporting. Give authorities the facts: the age of the young person, the platform, what was requested, the threat, any payment, and whether material was shared. Laws and procedures vary by jurisdiction. A guide cannot determine charges, liability, a filing deadline, or whether a particular platform or person can be sued.

If the family wants legal advice, seek an attorney licensed in the relevant jurisdiction who can explain confidentiality, evidence handling, school issues, removal options, and possible claims. Ask how fees work and what information is needed before sending sensitive records. Do not upload explicit material to a general web form unless the recipient has explained a lawful, secure method and why the file is necessary. A consultation does not guarantee representation or an outcome.

Social Suit's guide to preparing questions about a possible legal claim can help organize dates, records, and questions without deciding eligibility. For serious harm potentially connected to social-media products or conduct, the site's legal options explainer describes an independent eligibility enquiry. Routine online conflict does not automatically create a claim, and using the enquiry does not replace reporting an active child-safety threat to NCMEC or law enforcement.

Keep legal planning separate from public confrontation. Posting accusations, naming a suspected person, or sharing screenshots broadly can expose the teenager's identity, alert the offender, or spread private information. Preserve the material for the appropriate agencies and advisers. A careful private record is usually more useful than a viral post assembled during a crisis.

A hypothetical example of a calm response

Consider a hypothetical situation: a sixteen-year-old receives a message from an account that seemed to belong to another teenager. After a private image is sent, the account displays a screenshot of the student's follower list and demands a payment within ten minutes. The student sends a small payment, then tells an older sibling when the demand doubles. This example is illustrative; it does not describe a client, victim, or study participant.

The sibling says the student is not in trouble and brings in a parent the student trusts. They silence the account, save the username, profile link, threat, payment handle, receipt, and times, but do not forward the image. The parent contacts the payment provider, changes the affected account and email passwords, turns on multi-factor authentication, and records unfamiliar sessions. They explain each action before using the student's phone.

Together they submit a CyberTipline report, report the account to the platform under sexual exploitation, and contact law enforcement. Because the original image remains on the student's device and was created when the student was under eighteen, they review Take It Down's official instructions and create a hash on that device. They keep every confirmation number in one short timeline and block new accounts after recording their identifiers.

The next day, the family tells one school counselor because classmates received suspicious follow requests. The school gives the student a named contact and tells recipients not to open, forward, or request any image. The family checks safety and sleep, arranges professional support when the student asks for it, and reviews account restrictions after one week. The plan does not promise that every copy is gone; it replaces the offender's countdown with coordinated actions and human support.

Keep the next step small and specific

A family confronting sextortion may feel pressure to solve identity, removal, money, school, and emotional recovery at once. Start with the next protective action. If the threat is active, stop engagement and preserve identifiers. If immediate safety is uncertain, stay with the teenager and use crisis or emergency help. If an image is circulating, report the specific location and use an eligible removal tool. A small clear step is more useful than an argument about what should have happened earlier.

Return to the teenager with updates in plain language: which report was filed, what the platform said, when the next review will happen, and who will handle new messages. Do not make them monitor adult inboxes or repeat the story to prove they are cooperating. Give them a route to add a forgotten fact or report a new account without reopening the entire discussion.

Review the plan after twenty-four hours, one week, and whenever the pattern changes. Close tasks that are finished, update agencies with genuinely new information, and reduce temporary account restrictions when they are no longer needed. Recovery is not measured by never feeling upset. It is supported by safety, truthful information, appropriate privacy, and access to people who can help.

The essential message is steady: the blackmailer is responsible, payment and compliance are not reliable exits, and the teenager does not have to manage the threat alone. Preserve what helps, avoid spreading the image, report through official channels, secure the accounts, and protect the young person's immediate safety. Those actions create a path forward even when an offender is trying to make the situation feel irreversible.

Sources and further reading

These primary resources provide context. Our practical examples and planning suggestions are original educational material, not validated treatment protocols. Linked organizations do not endorse Social Suit.

• FBI: Financially Motivated Sextortion
• FBI: Sextortion — A Growing Threat Targeting Minors
• NCMEC: Sextortion
• NCMEC: 2025 Financial Sextortion Report Data
• NCMEC: Take It Down
• NCMEC: CyberTipline
• FTC: Image-Based Abuse — What To Know and Do
• FTC: Did someone share an explicit image of your child online?
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline

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