If the person in the images is under 18, this page is for you.
Go to the police. Do not screenshot it. Do not send it to us.
Our firm handles intimate-image cases for adults. We cannot take a case involving images of a minor, and this page explains why in plain terms. It also tells you what to do tonight, who to call, and what the law says, because a parent searching at 2 a.m. deserves a straight answer.
- Do not send the images to anyone, including a lawyer
- Police and NCMEC are the right first calls
- Nothing here is a substitute for a police report
Do this tonight, in this order
These steps come from the law and from the agencies that handle these cases. None of them requires a lawyer.
- Do not save, screenshot, or forward the image. Not to a friend, not to the school, not to a lawyer.
Under Florida and federal law, possessing or viewing a sexual image of someone under 18 is a serious crime, and every copy counts on its own. The only exception is for law enforcement. There is no exception for parents, and none for lawyers. Write down where you saw it, the account name, and the date, and leave the image where it is.
- Give what you know to the police.
Florida law protects a person who reports a sexual image of a minor to a law enforcement officer, including by giving the officer the image. That is the one place the image is supposed to go. If there is a threat to your child’s safety right now, call 911. Otherwise call your local police department’s non-emergency line and ask for a report number.
- Report it to NCMEC’s CyberTipline.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children runs the national reporting system for the online exploitation of children. The public can report there, online or at 1-800-843-5678.
- Start a Take It Down request.
Take It Down is NCMEC’s free service for people who have nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images of themselves that were taken when they were under 18. The image never leaves the device; the service creates a digital fingerprint that participating platforms use to find and remove copies. An adult can use it for an image taken when they were a minor. Sit with your child and run it together.
- If someone is demanding money or more images, call the FBI.
The FBI handles sextortion of kids and teens and asks victims to call 1-800-CALL-FBI, report at tips.fbi.gov, or contact local law enforcement. Its advice to parents is to tell your child, in advance, that your first move will always be to help. Its warning: do not pay a for-profit company that offers to make it go away.
- If your child was pressured or tricked into making the image, call the Florida Abuse Hotline too.
Florida treats pressuring or forcing a child into a sexual performance as child abuse, and anyone who suspects it is required to report it, whoever the offender is. The hotline is 1-800-962-2873, or reportabuse.myflfamilies.com. When the image already existed and someone simply shared it, police and the CyberTipline are the right calls.
Why a civil law firm cannot take this case
In an adult case, the evidence is the image, and a firm can receive it, preserve it, and use it. When the person depicted is under 18, the image itself is illegal to possess. The only exception in the law is for law enforcement. A firm that accepted the image into its files would be committing the very crime it was hired to address.
That is why this page sends you to police, the FBI, and NCMEC first. They can lawfully hold the evidence. We cannot, and neither can you.
If your child has since turned 18, or if the person in the images is an adult, our main Private Again page covers those cases and you can reach us there.
What Florida law says
Florida’s laws on sexual images of minors now use the term “child sexual abuse material.” Here is what they cover, in plain terms.
Possessing or viewing the image
Knowingly possessing, controlling, or intentionally viewing a sexual image of a minor is a crime. Each image, and each child in each image, counts separately. The only exception is material handled as part of a law enforcement investigation.
Making a child produce the image
Pressuring, inducing, or arranging for a child to take part in a sexual performance is among the most serious crimes in Florida law.
AI-generated or altered images
An image edited or generated to show a real, identifiable minor in sexual conduct is treated the same as a real one. A generated image of a fictitious person who a reasonable person would take to be under 18 is also a crime to possess, create, or send.
Threats and demands
Threatening to expose someone in order to get money or force them to do something is extortion, a crime in Florida. Demanding new images from a child is treated as inducing a sexual performance.
What federal law says
Federal law reaches the same conduct, with its own crimes and its own civil remedies.
Possession
Knowingly possessing, or accessing in order to view, a sexual image of a minor is a federal crime. The definition covers real minors, computer-generated images that cannot be told from a real minor, and real images altered to show an identifiable minor.
The TAKE IT DOWN Act
Knowingly posting an intimate image, or an AI fake, of a minor online to abuse, humiliate, harass, or degrade the minor is a federal crime, and so is threatening to post one. Reporting the image to police, or seeking help about an unsolicited image, is expressly allowed.
A civil claim for the child
Federal law lets a person who was a victim of these crimes as a minor sue in federal court for actual damages or $150,000, plus costs and attorney fees, with punitive damages possible. That claim has no filing deadline.
Who brings it for a minor
The federal intimate-image civil law lets a legal guardian, another family member, or a person the court appoints bring the claim for someone under 18, and the defendant can never be that person.
These claims are brought by lawyers who handle federal child-exploitation civil cases and who work with law enforcement on the evidence.
Can a parent sue in Florida, and when
A parent or guardian can bring a civil claim on a child’s behalf in Florida.
The deadline is where parents get caught. Florida does not pause the deadline for a child who has a parent or guardian able to sue. The clock runs the same as it would for an adult.
The federal claim for a child victim is the exception: it has no filing deadline.
Who to call
Every resource on this list is free and is run by a government agency or a national nonprofit.
- 911 if there is a threat to a child’s safety right now.
- Your local police for the report. They can lawfully take the image; you should not keep it.
- NCMEC CyberTipline: report.cybertip.org or 1-800-843-5678, for sexual images of minors and online enticement.
- Take It Down: takeitdown.ncmec.org, free removal help for images taken when the person was under 18, at any age now.
- FBI: 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov, for sextortion.
- Florida Abuse Hotline: 1-800-962-2873 or reportabuse.myflfamilies.com, when a child was pressured or tricked into making the image.
Reporting inside the app
Report the post inside the app as well, so the platform starts its own removal. Each link below opens the platform’s help center home page. Platforms change their reporting pages often; if a link does not land where you expect, search that help center for “report nude image.”
- Instagram Help Center
- Facebook Help Center
- Snapchat Support
- TikTok Support
- X Help Center
- Reddit Help
- Discord Support
- Google Search: request removal of personal content, which says anyone can report nude or sexual content showing a person under 18.
Questions parents ask
Short answers, based on the law and the agencies’ own pages.
No. Possessing a sexual image of a minor is a crime under Florida and federal law, with no exception for parents. Write down the URL, the account name, the date and the time, then tell the police what you saw. Florida law protects a person who reports and hands the image to an officer.
Florida’s sexting law, statute 847.0141, treats a minor’s first violation as a noncriminal violation handled by citation, similar to a ticket. A minor who received an image without asking for it and reports it to a parent, the school, or police, without sending it on, has not violated that law at all. It does not rule out other charges when the image shows sexual conduct, which is one more reason to report rather than delete.
Yes, under both Florida and federal law. An image edited or generated to show a real, identifiable minor in sexual conduct is treated the same as a real one under Florida statute 827.071 and under federal law. Posting an AI fake of a minor online to humiliate or harass them is also a federal crime under the TAKE IT DOWN Act.
Do not pay, and do not delete the messages. Call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or report at tips.fbi.gov, and call local police. Threatening to expose someone to get money is extortion in Florida, and demanding new images from a child is a serious crime of its own. The FBI’s own warning: do not pay a for-profit company that offers to make it go away.
Yes. A parent or guardian can sue on a child’s behalf in Florida, and the federal intimate-image civil law expressly lets a legal guardian or another family member bring the claim for a minor. The federal civil remedy for child victims, 18 U.S.C. 2255, provides $150,000 in liquidated damages and has no filing deadline. Our firm does not bring these cases because the evidence is the image; this page tells you they exist.
Not in Florida, if the child has a parent or guardian able to sue. The federal claim for child victims is the exception: it has no time limit.
Take It Down is for people who have images of themselves taken when they were under 18, the image never leaves the device, and an adult can use it for an image from when they were a minor. Sit with your child and run it together, and report the image to the CyberTipline as well.
You can tell the school what happened, but do not send the school the image. The image goes to the police, who can lawfully hold it. Florida’s sexting law counts a minor’s report to a school official as a report, so a student who received an image and told the school has done the right thing.
Because the evidence is the image, and possessing it is a crime with no exception for lawyers under Florida or federal law. A firm cannot receive, review, or store it. The people who can are police, the FBI, and NCMEC, and that is where the case has to start.
Yes. If the person in the images is now an adult, our main Private Again page covers those cases, and they can reach us there. Take It Down also works for an adult removing an image taken when they were a minor.
If the person in the images is an adult
Our main page covers Florida and federal law for adults, what to do tonight, and how we take those cases.