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If someone is threatening to share your pictures
For anyone being blackmailed over a nude or sexual picture or video, real or fake: a teen, an adult, or the person they just told. It is called sextortion, and it is a crime. This page passes on, by name, what the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), StopNCII.org, the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and federal investigators say to do: what to do in the first hour, how to get pictures taken down without sending them to anyone, how to report it, what to save, and how to tell someone. It builds the first words to say. Take only what you need today.
Right now
- Thinking about ending your life? Call or text 988, at any hour. This can be stopped, and you are worth more than a picture.
- In danger right now, or they know where you live? Call 911.
- Don’t pay, and don’t send more. NCMEC says cooperating or paying rarely stops the blackmail.
- Block them, but don’t delete the messages. NCMEC says they can help stop the blackmailer.
- Under 18, or were in the picture? Call or text NCMEC at 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST). It calls this a 24-hour call center. It says the blackmailer is to blame, not you.
- Someone checks your phone? Calls, texts and this page can leave a trace.
More help
- A plan for the worst nights: Make your safety plan and Get help now.
- The person is a partner or an ex, or is following you: When home isn’t safe and If someone is stalking you.
- Someone hurt you, or made you do something: After sexual assault and If a child is being hurt.
- Not sure whether a message is a scam: Is this a scam?
- They got into your accounts: When someone is using your name.
- You hurt yourself to get through: When you hurt yourself to cope.
- You’re scared for someone else: When you’re worried about someone.
- All our free tools.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No counselor, investigator, lawyer or person who has been through this has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 7, 2026 on the websites of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (missingkids.org: its sextortion, CyberTipline, “Is Your Explicit Content Out There?” and support pages; takeitdown.ncmec.org: its home, FAQ and resources pages), StopNCII.org (its home, how-it-works and FAQ pages), the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (its Safety Center), Homeland Security Investigations (its sextortion page on ice.gov, which ICE now marks as archived content, not reflective of current practice), Congress.gov (its summary of Public Law 119-12) and the 988 Lifeline (its home page). The page says whose words it is passing on, and what is marked “ours” is our own. What we could not open or did not read: the FBI’s and the Federal Trade Commission’s pages on sextortion (both refused our connection), the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative’s helpline page (so its phone number is not here), the text of the federal law, any state’s law, and the reporting forms themselves. We used none of the tools, filed no report and called no number. It saves nothing and loads no tracking.