Help for Victims of a Crime

If a child is being exploited online right now, report it to the NCMEC CyberTipline and to the FBI or your local police before anything else. That is the fastest route to someone with authority to act, and it reaches across borders in a way no private lawyer can.

These questions come from people trying to protect someone else, often with the offender in another country and no obvious place to begin. The answer is usually that the conduct is both a state crime and a federal one, and that federal investigators are the party positioned to pursue it.

Evidence disappears. Preserve messages, usernames, profile links, screenshots and dates before accounts are deleted or you are blocked, and hand them to investigators rather than confronting the person yourself — a confrontation is usually what triggers the deletion.