SafeMeet
safety

Sextortion: what to do if someone threatens to share your images

Someone has an intimate image of you and is demanding money or more images. Here is what to do in the next ten minutes, and who can take the images down.

Updated

Do these things now

  1. Stop replying. Do not negotiate and do not explain. The Canadian Centre for Child Protection puts it first: immediately stop talking to them.
  2. Do not pay, and do not send anything else. NCMEC's warning is that cooperating or paying rarely stops the blackmail, and a second image only gives them more to threaten you with.
  3. Keep the evidence. Screenshot the messages, the account name and any payment details they sent. NCMEC is blunt about it: do not delete your profile or messages, because they are what a report runs on.
  4. Block and report the account on the platform where it happened.
  5. Tell someone you trust: a parent, a friend, a teacher or a helpline. People in this situation often feel they cannot tell anyone. You can, and it helps.
  6. Get the images taken down and report the crime, using the services below for your age and country.

If you are under 18

  • Take It Down (NCMEC) is free and works for images taken while you were under 18. It makes a digital fingerprint of the image on your own device, so the image itself is never uploaded, and participating platforms use the fingerprint to find and remove copies.
  • United States: report to NCMEC's CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org or 1-800-843-5678.
  • Canada: NeedHelpNow.ca helps with removing an image of you taken under 18, and Cybertip.ca takes reports. Kids Help Phone is at 1-800-668-6868.
  • United Kingdom: Childline's Report Remove lets people under 18 report sexual images and videos of themselves to be removed, including fakes made with AI, and CEOP, part of the National Crime Agency, takes reports about online sexual abuse.

If you are 18 or older

  • StopNCII.org is for images taken when you were 18 or older. Like Take It Down, it creates the fingerprint on your device, so the image itself stays with you.
  • United States: report to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), as the FBI asks.
  • Anywhere else: report to your local police, and keep the evidence for them.

What it usually looks like

The warning signs NCMEC lists are consistent: asking for nude images quickly, pushing to move the chat to another platform, "I'll show you if you show me", a fake modelling offer or a fast-moving romance, and someone pretending to be younger or a different gender than they are.

On SafeMeet

In a chat with a person, Panic and Block sit in the chat header, one tap away: Panic ends the chat and files a report, and once a chat ends you can report it from your inbox. The plainest request for photos, such as "send nudes", is blocked instantly as the message is sent, and other pressure for photos is scored before delivery, as what gets blocked explains. There are no profiles or usernames to find you by. None of that undoes an image already sent, which is what the services above are for.

You are not the only one

Between October 2021 and March 2023 the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations received over 13,000 reports of financial sextortion of minors, according to the FBI. In 2025 the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 75,000 sextortion complaints and referred more than 5,700 involving minors to NCMEC (IC3 2025 report). It is common, it is a crime, and the people running it count on you being too ashamed to tell anyone.

If this has you thinking about hurting yourself, please talk to someone now: the crisis helplines by country are free and confidential.

Questions people ask about sextortion

Should I pay to make it stop?

No. The Canadian Centre for Child Protection’s advice is never to pay money and never to send more images, and NCMEC’s is to get help before deciding anything, because cooperating or paying rarely stops the blackmail. Stop replying, keep the evidence and report.

Can my images be taken down?

Often, yes. If you were under 18 when the image was taken, NCMEC’s Take It Down creates a digital fingerprint of it on your own device, so the image is never uploaded, and shares that fingerprint with participating platforms. If you were 18 or older, StopNCII.org works the same way. In the UK, Childline’s Report Remove is for people under 18.

Is it my fault?

No. As NCMEC puts it, the blackmailer is to blame, not you: even if you made a choice you regret, what they are doing is a crime. Telling an adult you trust, or a helpline, is the fastest way out.

Sources checked on October 23, 2026: NCMEC, Take It Down, StopNCII.org, the FBI, the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center, Childline, CEOP, Cybertip.ca and NeedHelpNow.ca, each linked where it is cited.