Online exploitation and sextortion

Legal accuracy check

Chris Schroeder, Esq.

Florida Bar #520381 · D.C. Bar

First published October 5, 2026 · Last checked October 5, 2026

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What it is

Online exploitation covers the ways the internet is used to sexually exploit a person: persuading a young person to send sexual images, threatening to share images, making or trading sexual images of children, and creating fake intimate images with editing or artificial intelligence. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline received 21.3 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2025.

Sextortion. The FBI describes children and teens being “threatened and coerced into sending explicit images online.” It can start on any app, game or site. Often the young person believes they are talking to someone their own age, or to someone offering something they value. Once the offender has one image, the threat to share it is used to demand more. NCMEC received more than 80,000 sextortion reports in 2025 as part of 1.4 million reports of online enticement.

Financial sextortion demands money or gift cards instead of more images. NCMEC reports that many cases involve teenage boys targeted through fake social media accounts, and that it received an average of 137 financial sextortion reports a day in 2025, 37% more per day than the year before. The FBI warns that the offender “often releases the victim’s sexually explicit material regardless of whether or not they receive payment.”

Fake and AI-made images. NCMEC counted more than 400,000 reports in 2025 involving generative artificial intelligence, and it is tracking cases in which classmates or peers use “nudify” apps. Since May 19, 2025, the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act has treated these “digital forgeries” alongside real images (below).

Adults are targeted too. Intimate images of an adult shared or threatened without consent fall under the same federal law, and adults have their own civil claim.

Signs and how it is reported

The FBI is direct with young people about blame: “Even if this started on an app or site that you are too young to be on. Even if you felt okay about making some of the content. Even if you accepted money or a game credit or something else, you are not the one who is in trouble.” It also tells young people to report the account to the site. The FBI says victims describe feeling “scared, alone, embarrassed, anxious, and desperate.” A sudden change like that in a young person proves nothing on its own, and the right first step is a calm conversation.

Report it.

• NCMEC’s CyberTipline, online or at 1-800-843-5678, staffed 24 hours a day. In 2025 it received more than 5,700 reports directly from victims.
• The FBI, at tips.fbi.gov, 1-800-CALL-FBI, or a local FBI field office.
• The platform where it happened, through its reporting tool.

Get images taken down. Take It Down is a free NCMEC service for nude, partially nude or sexually explicit images or videos taken before the person was 18. It works without the images ever being sent to anyone: the service creates a digital fingerprint, called a hash, and shares it with participating platforms so they can find and remove matches. You can stay anonymous. In 2025 it received more than 130,000 requests covering more than 273,000 images and videos.

For anyone of any age, the TAKE IT DOWN Act (Pub. L. 119-12, signed May 19, 2025) required covered platforms to set up a removal process within one year. Once a platform receives a valid request, it must remove the image “as soon as possible, but not later than 48 hours” and make reasonable efforts to remove known copies (47 U.S.C. 223a). The Federal Trade Commission enforces that duty. The same Act made it a federal crime, in defined circumstances, to knowingly publish intimate images of a person without consent, including digital forgeries, and to threaten to do so for “intimidation, coercion, extortion” (47 U.S.C. 223(h)).

Civil claims that may apply

Federal law gives survivors several civil claims, each with its own conditions. Whether one fits depends on the facts.

For people who were minors. 18 U.S.C. 2255, known since its 2006 amendment as Masha’s Law, lets a person who was a victim as a minor of listed federal crimes sue in federal court. The list includes sexual exploitation of children (section 2251), offenses involving sexual images of minors (sections 2252 and 2252A) and enticement (section 2422). It has had no time limit since September 16, 2022 for claims not already barred on that date. Separately, 18 U.S.C. 2252A(f) allows “any person aggrieved” by the distribution, receipt or possession of such images to sue for injunctive relief and “compensatory and punitive damages.”

For anyone whose intimate images were shared. 15 U.S.C. 6851, in force since 2022, gives a federal civil claim against a person who shares an intimate image knowing, or recklessly disregarding, that the person shown did not consent. Agreeing to an image being made is not agreeing to its distribution, and sending it to one person is not consent to that person passing it on. A court can order the person to stop displaying or sharing the image, and can let the plaintiff use a pseudonym. For someone under 18, a parent, guardian or other family member can bring the claim.

Against platforms. Families have sued gaming, chat and social media companies, alleging that the platforms’ design and safety failures let adults contact and exploit children. The federal cases are consolidated as MDL No. 3166 before Chief Judge Richard Seeborg in the Northern District of California, with 180 pending actions on October 1, 2026, according to the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. As of July 30, 2026, ten states and Los Angeles County had sued Roblox, according to the company’s quarterly report. These are allegations. Roblox says it “intends to defend itself vigorously,” and Discord denies the allegations. Platforms rely on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. 230, which the Judicial Panel named as an issue common to the cases. Our Roblox and Discord pages follow the litigation.

State law adds its own claims and deadlines; our statute of limitations reference covers each state, and our guide to filing anonymously explains how survivors keep their names out of court records.

Support resources

Being threatened this way is frightening, and it can feel like there is no way out. There is. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline takes calls and texts at 988 at any hour. RAINN, 800-656-4673, and its online chat are free and confidential. Childhelp, 800-422-4453, takes calls and texts for and about children.

Parents can start with our guide for families, and our guide to browsing safely explains how to keep reading private on a shared device. Exploitation online can begin with grooming, and images are one form of child sexual abuse. Related pages cover adult sexual assault and sex trafficking, and every type is listed on the types of abuse hub.

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