How to Report Online Child Exploitation and Get Help

If you have seen something that looks like online child exploitation, reporting it can feel overwhelming. This guide lays out where to report, what to include, and what happens next. You do not need to be certain a crime occurred. If something looks wrong, reporting it is the right call, and trained people will review it.

Report to the NCMEC CyberTipline

In the United States, the central place to report is the CyberTipline, run by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). It accepts reports of "online enticement of children for sexual acts, child sexual molestation, child sexual abuse material, child sex tourism, child sex trafficking, unsolicited obscene materials sent to a child, misleading domain names, and misleading words or digital images on the internet."

There are two ways to report:

• Online at report.cybertip.org
• By phone at 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST), available 24 hours a day

What to include

Include as much detail as you safely can. Helpful information includes usernames and profile links, the platform or app where it happened, screenshots of messages, dates and times, and any other context. One rule matters: do not download, save, or send sexual images or videos of a child. Report the location or the account instead, and let NCMEC and law enforcement handle the illegal content through proper channels.

What happens next

Reports are reviewed by people, not by an automatic system. NCMEC explains that "NCMEC staff review each tip and work to find a potential location for the incident reported so that it may be made available to the appropriate law-enforcement agency for possible investigation." Analysts review reported material and add details that help law enforcement prioritize cases, so reports where a child may be in ongoing danger get urgent attention.

Report to the platform

Also report the account or content to the platform where you found it. Most social media, gaming, and messaging apps have built-in reporting and safety tools, usually reachable by tapping on a profile, a message, or a post. Reporting to the platform can get an account restricted or removed and adds to the record. Do this in addition to the CyberTipline, not instead of it.

Contact law enforcement

If a child is in immediate danger, call 911 or your local police right away.

For online crimes that are not an active emergency, you can also report to the FBI. The FBI runs the Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov, and you can reach a local FBI field office at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324). In its guidance on sextortion, the FBI tells victims to report and reminds them not to be "embarrassed or afraid to contact law enforcement."

Reporting from outside the United States

If you are in Canada, report to Cybertip.ca, which describes itself as "Canada's national tipline for reporting the online sexual exploitation of children." It is run by the Canadian Centre for Child Protection and takes reports about "shared intimate images, online luring, and other areas involving child victimization on the internet." You can report at cybertip.ca.

In Australia, young people and families can report to the eSafety Commissioner, and image-based abuse can be reported there if a platform does not help. Wherever you are, a local NCMEC or law enforcement report and a report to the platform are usually both worth making.

Getting images removed

If nude or sexual images of a person under 18 are online or may be shared, free tools can help remove them.

• Take It Down (NCMEC) is "a free service that can help you remove or stop the online sharing of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos taken of you when you were under 18 years old." The image stays on your device and is never uploaded. It creates a digital fingerprint, or hash, that participating platforms use to find and remove matching content. Use it at takeitdown.ncmec.org.
• Thorn supports young people facing threats and points them to NCMEC's services. For confidential help by text, you can text THORN to 741741.
• In Canada, the Canadian Centre for Child Protection runs services to reduce the public availability of this material and support survivors.

Support hotlines

• NCMEC, 24-hour call center: 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST)
• RAINN, National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)
• Crisis Text Line: text THORN to 741741 for confidential counseling
• FBI IC3: ic3.gov, or 1-800-CALL-FBI

Reporting is not about getting anyone in trouble by mistake. It is how children get help and how patterns of abuse get stopped. If you are unsure, report anyway. Trained people will take it from there.