Your first 24 hours after non-consensual intimate images

1. If someone is threatening or extorting you, don’t engage

A common pattern — often called sextortion — is someone demanding money, more images, or other actions in exchange for not sharing the content.

• Don’t pay, and don’t send more images. Paying rarely stops the demands and often leads to more.
• Stop replying.You don’t owe them a response, and engaging tends to escalate the situation rather than resolve it.
• Don’t delete the conversation yet.You’ll likely want it as evidence (see step 2). Block the person afteryou’ve captured what you need.
• If the person targeted is under 18, treat this as urgent. Dedicated help for minors is listed below.

2. Preserve evidence safely

Before anything is taken down or deleted, capture what exists — you may need it to report to platforms, to law enforcement, or to an attorney.

• Take screenshots of the content, the messages, the usernames or handles, and the page address (URL). Capture the full screen, including the address bar and any visible date and time.
• Save the link (URL) to each place the content appears.
• Keep originals of any threatening messages (texts, DMs, emails) without editing them.
• Store copies somewhere you control— an encrypted folder, a password-protected drive, or printouts. If you’re worried about losing access to your accounts, consider keeping a copy somewhere a trusted person can reach.
• Avoid downloading or re-sharing the intimate content itself more than necessary. A screenshot of the page plus the URL is usually enough to report it.

3. Document URLs, accounts, and timestamps

A simple log makes every later step faster.

• For each instance, record: the URL, the platform or site, the account or username that posted it, the date and time you found it, and what you did about it.
• Note any profiles or accounts connected to the person responsible.
• Keep the log updated as you find more instances or as content moves.

4. Report to the platforms

Most major platforms prohibit non-consensual intimate images and offer a dedicated reporting path — many now specifically cover AI-generated and “deepfake” content.

• Use the reportoption on the specific post or profile, and look for categories like “non-consensual intimate image” or “intimate image shared without consent.”
• Search enginesalso accept requests to remove non-consensual explicit imagery from search results. Removing something from search is separate from removing it from the site that hosts it — it can still help limit how easily it’s found.
• Keep each confirmation or reference number and add it to your log.
• The TAKE IT DOWN Act— a US federal law (Public Law 119-12, 2025) — requires covered online platforms to offer a way to request removal of non-consensual intimate images, including AI-generated ones, and to remove a reported image within 48 hours of a valid removal request. As of 2026, this platform-removal requirement is in effect. Knowing the law exists can help when you ask a platform to act.

5. Consider proactive “hashing” tools

Free services can create a digital fingerprint (a “hash”) of an image on your own deviceand share only that hash — never the image itself — with participating platforms, so they can detect and block matching uploads.

• For adults: StopNCII.org(operated by the Revenge Porn Helpline, part of the charity SWGfL) lets you create hashes on your own device that participating companies use to detect and block matching images. It is for adults — you must have been over 18 when the image was taken.
• For anyone under 18 (or images made when someone was under 18): NCMEC’s Take It Down service does the same for minors.
• These tools process the image locally and share only the hash, not the picture.

6. Where a scan-and-takedown workflow can help

Once your evidence is preserved, finding everyplace the content appears — and keeping up as it spreads — is often the hardest part. A monitoring-and-takedown workflow like FaceSentry can help with that:

• You upload reference photos of your own face. FaceSentry uses automated face-matching to look for potential matches across content indexed on the web, and automated deepfake-detection to flag images it assesses as likely AI-generated or manipulated.
• When it surfaces a possible match, you can review it and prepare a removal requestfrom your dashboard — such as a notice under the TAKE IT DOWN Act or a DMCA notice where you hold the copyright to the image — then track its status and removal deadline in one place as you send it and follow up.
• FaceSentry’s results are indicators to help you act — a flagged match is a lead to review, not a legal determination, and sending a request does not by itself decide whether a platform removes the content or how quickly.

This section describes what FaceSentry does in plain terms and promises no specific outcome.

7. When to reach out for legal and support help

You don’t have to handle this alone, and some situations call for more help.

• Emotional support and crisis: in the US, you can call or text 988 (the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline). RAINN operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 — you can also text HOPE to 64673.
• Specialized image-abuse help: the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) offers guidance and operates the CCRI Image Abuse Helpline at 1-844-878-2274, a free, confidential line for US residents.
• Law enforcement:consider reporting to your local police and, in the US, to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (ic3.gov) for internet-enabled crime such as extortion. If the person targeted is under 18, use the dedicated resources for minors above rather than a general crime-reporting channel.
• Legal options: an attorney who works on privacy, harassment, or image-based abuse can explain options that may be available to you.

8. Privacy, and what this guide can and can’t do

• Not legal advice. This page is general information. Laws differ by location and change over time; for advice about your situation, talk to a qualified attorney.
• No outcome is certain.Reporting and removal depend on each platform’s own policies and processes. Neither this guide nor any tool can decide whether content is removed, stays down, or how fast that happens.
• Detection is a signal, not a verdict.AI detection and face matching produce indicators to help you find and act on possible matches — not a legal determination that an image is fake or authentic.
• Your privacy with FaceSentry.FaceSentry is designed to protect your privacy — see our Security and Privacy pages for how reference photos and matches are handled.

You are not alone

You are not the only person this has happened to, and help exists. Take these steps at your own pace, lean on the support resources, and ask for help when you need it.