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Teen sextortion on Snapchat and Instagram: a guide for parents

Worried your teen is being threatened over intimate images, or want to prepare them? How sextortion of young people works, what to say, why not to pay, and how Take It Down, police and eSafety can help remove images.

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Sextortion is when someone tricks or pressures a young person into sharing an intimate image, then threatens to send it to friends, family or school unless they pay or send more. It can happen to any teen, and it is never their fault. If you’re reading this because it’s happening right now, the most important things are to stay calm, reassure your child, don’t pay, and report it. Help is available, and images can often be removed.

How common is it?

In 2025, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received more than 75,000 sextortion submissions and referred more than 5,700 involving minors to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (FBI IC3 2025). The FBI has warned that financially motivated sextortion often targets boys aged 14 to 17, typically by someone posing as a girl of a similar age, and that much of it originates overseas (FBI).

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How it usually unfolds

  1. A friendly, attractive “teen” adds your child on Instagram or Snapchat, often with mutual friends.
  2. The chat turns flirty fast, and the other person sends an image, then asks for one back.
  3. Within minutes or hours, the tone changes. They show screenshots of your child’s followers and threaten to send the image to everyone unless they pay, usually by gift card, payment app or crypto.
  4. Deadlines and repeated messages are used to overwhelm them. Some offenders now use AI to create fake explicit images from ordinary photos, so a teen can be targeted even if they never sent anything.

If it’s happening now: what to do

  1. Reassure your child first. Something like “You’re not in trouble. This person is a criminal, and we’ll deal with it together.” Shame keeps young people silent; support helps them speak.
  2. Don’t pay or send anything else. Payment rarely ends it (NCMEC).
  3. Stop replying and block, but keep the evidence. Screenshot the profile, username, messages and any payment details before blocking.
  4. Report to the platform using Snapchat’s or Instagram’s in-app reporting.
  5. Report to the authorities:
  6. Get images removed. Use Take It Down from NCMEC for images taken when your child was under 18. It works from a digital fingerprint, so the image doesn’t leave your device.

Looking after your child

  • Expect fear, embarrassment and sleeplessness. Check in often and keep the conversation open.
  • Ask their school counsellor or GP for support if they’re struggling.
  • Kids Helpline (1800 55 1800) in Australia, Childline (0800 1111) in the UK and the 988 Lifeline in the US offer confidential support.
  • If they talk about self-harm, get help immediately through emergency services.

Preparing your teen before anything happens

  • Talk about it calmly and early, as something that happens to lots of people.
  • Agree that they can tell you anything without losing their phone.
  • Set accounts to private and limit who can send messages.
  • Remind them that someone they’ve only met online may not be who they say, however many mutual friends they have.

Adults are targeted too, usually by email. If you’ve had a message claiming to have hacked your webcam, see our guide to the “I have your password” email scam.

Questions

Should we pay to make it stop?

No. The FBI and NCMEC advise against paying. Payment rarely stops the threats, and extorters often come back for more. Focus on reporting and removal instead.

Will my child get in trouble with police?

Police and child safety agencies treat young people in these situations as victims. Reporting is about stopping the offender and getting images removed.

What is Take It Down?

A service run by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. It creates a digital fingerprint (a hash) of an image on your own device, so participating platforms can find and remove copies, without you uploading the image itself. It’s for images taken when the person was under 18.

Should we delete the Snapchat or Instagram account?

Not straight away. Block the extorter, but keep the account and chats so you can screenshot evidence and report. You can deactivate later.

How do I bring this up before anything happens?

Keep it general and calm: explain that people pretend to be teens online to get photos and then demand money, and that if it ever happens, they can come to you and you won’t be angry.

Need help right now?

If your child is in danger or talking about harming themselves, call emergency services (000 in Australia, 911 in the US, 999 in the UK, 111 in NZ). Then use the reporting links in this guide. You can also check a profile photo the extorter used with the photo check above.

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General information only, not legal or financial advice. ImposterWatch is operated by Cloud Investments FZE (UAE) and is not a background check or private investigator service.