Sextortion: What Schools Should Do

Sextortion happens when someone threatens to share a sexual image of a young person unless the young person sends more images, sexual activity, or money. Sometimes the image was shared willingly with someone the student trusted. Sometimes it was obtained through a fake account or a lie. Either way, the young person is the victim of a crime, and school staff are often the trusted adults students turn to first.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) reports that online enticement reports, the category that includes sextortion, rose about 300% between 2021 and 2023, with teenage boys among the most common recent targets. The FBI has issued national alerts about a fast-growing form called financial sextortion, where offenders demand money rather than more images.

How to recognize it

Students rarely say the word "sextortion." Watch instead for sudden changes: a student who becomes withdrawn, anxious, or panicked around their phone, who stops using a device they used to rely on, or who seems frightened of being exposed. A student may ask a vague hypothetical question ("what would happen if...") as a way to test whether it is safe to tell you more. Offenders move fast and use fear and shame to keep the young person silent, so the student may be terrified that telling an adult will make things worse.

Respond without shame or blame

Thorn, which advises educators on this, stresses that young people who experience sextortion can feel extreme fear, judgment, and shame. Your first job is to lower that fear.

• Listen more than you talk. Pay attention to what the student says and does not say.
• Make clear the exploitation is wrong and not their fault, whatever their role in creating or sharing the original image.
• Thank them for telling you. NCMEC suggests simple words like "Thank you for telling me. I know this must be difficult."
• Do not react with anger or interrogate them. That confirms the offender's threat that adults will be angry.

Thorn recommends asking a few key questions about safety rather than many questions about details: whether the student would like to talk to someone about how to handle this, whether there are times they do not feel safe, and whether they are having thoughts of harming themselves or others. If a student is in immediate danger, follow your school's safety and crisis process right away.

Preserve evidence the right way

This is where good intentions can cause harm. Do not take screenshots of the images, and do not have the student take screenshots. Thorn warns that saving those images may count as possession of child sexual abuse material, even when done to document abuse. You can and should note the username, platform, and what happened, but leave the images alone.

The FBI advises against deleting the account or messages, because the offender's messages and profile can help investigators. So the student should stop responding and block the offender, but not wipe the conversation.

Immediate steps

1. Get the student to a calm, private space and a school counselor or trusted staff member.
2. Advise them to stop all contact with the offender and not to send money or more images. The FBI notes that paying rarely stops the demands.
3. Have them block the account without deleting the messages.
4. Loop in the family when it is safe and appropriate to do so, following your school's process.

Mandatory-reporter considerations

Sextortion of a minor is child sexual exploitation. In most US states, school staff are mandated reporters, and reporting duties are set by state law. Know your state's rules and your district's reporting chain before an incident happens, and follow them. When in doubt, report.

Reporting

Make a report to the NCMEC CyberTipline at report.cybertip.org or 1-800-843-5678. CyberTipline reports are reviewed by NCMEC staff, who route them for follow-up; reporting is not an automatic takedown. You can also report to the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov, and to local law enforcement. Thorn advises reporting to law enforcement before asking a platform to remove content, so evidence is preserved.

Take It Down

NCMEC's free Take It Down service helps limit the spread of the image. If a young person was under 18 when the image was taken, the tool creates a digital fingerprint, called a hash, of the image on their own device. The image itself never leaves the device and never gets uploaded. Participating platforms use the hash to detect and remove matching images. Students can use it anonymously.

Supporting the student afterward

Recovery does not end when the images stop. Keep checking in, protect the student's privacy among staff and peers, and connect the family with support. NCMEC's Team HOPE connects families with peers who have been through similar experiences, and NetSmartz offers age-appropriate classroom materials so prevention becomes part of the school culture rather than a one-time scare.