Someone Made a Deepfake of Your Child: What to Do

Finding out that someone made a fake nude image of your child is frightening. You may feel shocked, angry, or unsure what to do first. This guide is here to help you move through it calmly and take the steps that matter most.

First, the thing that matters more than anything else: this is not your child's fault. A child does not have to take or send a single photo for this to happen. Someone can take an ordinary picture from a social media profile, a school website, or a sports team page and use an app to alter it. Your child did nothing to cause this.

The image is fake, but the harm is real

These images are made with AI tools, sometimes called "nudify" apps, that alter a normal photo to make it look sexual. The picture is not real. The distress it causes is very real. Children who are targeted often feel exposed, ashamed, and afraid they will not be believed precisely because they know they never took such a photo.

Thorn, a nonprofit that builds technology to defend children from abuse, has written about this fear of not being believed. Their research with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) found that about 1 in 6 minors who experience an online sexual interaction never tell anyone. The old advice of "just don't share nudes" does not fit here, because a child can be targeted without ever sharing anything. If your child came to you, that took courage. Meeting them with calm and belief is the single most helpful thing you can do.

If there is a threat or demand for money

Sometimes a fake image is used to blackmail a child, a crime called sextortion. The person threatens to send the image to friends and family unless the child pays money or sends real images. The FBI has warned about criminals doing exactly this with AI-altered photos taken from social media (FBI, 2023).

The FBI's advice is clear: do not pay, and do not send anything more. Paying does not guarantee the image will not be shared, and it often invites more demands. Stop responding to the person, but do not delete the account or the messages yet. You will need them as evidence.

Steps to take right now

• Reassure your child. Tell them plainly they are not in trouble and that you will handle this together.
• Do not pay and do not send more images. If money or images are being demanded, stop engaging with the person.
• Save the evidence. Take screenshots of the images, messages, usernames, and any account links before anything is deleted. This helps platforms and police act.
• Report it to the platform. Use the reporting tool on the app or website where the image appeared. Report the account that made or shared it.
• Tell the school if a classmate is involved. Many of these cases involve a peer. Schools can act on their conduct policies, and they should know so they can protect other students too.

Reporting to NCMEC

In the United States, you can report to NCMEC's CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org/reporting or by calling 1-800-843-5678. These reports are reviewed by trained people at NCMEC, not handled automatically, and they can be shared with law enforcement. Reporting also helps NCMEC understand and respond to what is happening to children online.

Getting the image taken down

NCMEC runs a free service called Take It Down. It helps remove nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images of people who were under 18. It works by creating a digital fingerprint, called a hash, of the image. As NCMEC explains, your image or video remains on your device and is not submitted as part of this process. Participating platforms use that fingerprint to find and remove matching images. You can use the service anonymously.

One important note: only submit an image you already have on your device. Never seek out, download, or share the image in order to report it.

The law is on your side

The legal picture has changed in the child's favor. The TAKE IT DOWN Act became federal law in May 2025 (Congress.gov). It makes it illegal to knowingly share non-consensual intimate images, including AI-generated fakes, and requires covered platforms to remove reported images, and known copies, within 48 hours of a valid request. Platform enforcement of those takedown duties is now in effect. Many states also have their own laws covering fake intimate images of minors.

Caring for your child afterward

Removal and reporting matter, but so does how your child feels. Keep checking in gently over the coming weeks. Let them know that being targeted says nothing about them and everything about the person who did it. If they are struggling, a counselor or your pediatrician can help. Reminding them, more than once, that you believe them and that none of this is their fault is not a small thing. It is often what helps them heal.