Intimate image abuse and Sextortion
Intimate image abuse and sextortion are serious sexual offences. Intimate image abuse is when someone shares, or threatens to share, private sexual images or videos of another person without their premission. Sextortion is a type of online blackmail that occurs when someone threatens to share sexual pictures, videos or information for financial gain or other demand.
Intimate image abuse is when someone shares, or threatens to share, private sexual images or videos of another person without their consent.
Also known as revenge porn, it includes the taking of sexually explicit photos or videos of another person without their knowledge and/or consent.
Intimate image abuse covers the distribution of both real and deepfake images and videos. Deepfakes are images, videos or audio that have been edited or generated using Artificial Intelligence tools. Deepfakes will often use genuine photos as the basis for synthetic media.
The Revenge Porn Helpline offers advice and support to adult victims of intimate image abuse including the reporting and removal of content. This includes synthetically sexualised images or deepfakes.
Stop NCII (Non-Consensual Intimate Image Abuse) is a free tool that gives adults over the age of 18 more control over their intimate images or videos. The tool creates a hash or digital barcode for an individual’s intimate images or videos. StopNCII.org then shares the hash with participating platforms so they can help detect and remove content if it is shared online. StopNCII.org is operated by the Revenge Porn Helpline.
Report Remove is an online tool run by Childline and the Internet Watch Foundation to help young people under the age of 18 to confidentially report sexual images and videos of themselves and remove them from the internet. This includes fake sexualised images and videos.
Sharing private sexual images or videos of another person or creating, or requesting the creation of, non-consensual, intimate deepfake images is a criminal offence. If someone has shared, or is threatening to share, a private sexual photo or video of you, you can report it to Thames Valley Police.
Having sexual images of yourself shared online can be a distressing experience with many victims feeling violated and humiliated. Victims First can provide emotional support to adults and young people that have experienced intimate image abuse. Contact us on 0300 1234 148 or use our online form found at Get Support Now.
Sextortion is different from intimate image abuse. It is a type of online blackmail and occurs when someone threatens to share sexual pictures, videos or information for financial gain or other demand.
Sextortion attempts can happen very quickly or over a long period of time. Perpetrators are often known to the victim (partners or ex-partners) or are people victim’s think they have befriended online but turn out to be criminals.
You can also be a victim of sextortion even if you haven't shared sexual images or information. Criminals may hack a victim’s online accounts and retrieve private images, or create fake images or videos from genuine photos that have been posted online (deepfakes).
If you are being threatened or blackmailed, support and help is available.
- Report any threats to Thames Valley Police.
- Do not pay the blackmailer any money or, if you have already sent money, don’t send anymore. There is no guarantee that payment will mean the threats will stop or that the blackmailer won’t share the images or videos anyway.
- Don’t meet any other demands such as sending further images or videos.
- Collect evidence including screenshots of your communication with the blackmailer, their profile information and any contact information they have given you including email addresses, phone numbers and bank details as this may help the police to identify them.
- Stop all communication and block the blackmailer. Report their profile to the platform you have been communicating with them on.
If you are 18 or over, contact the Revenge Porn Helpline or visit Stop NCII (Non-Consensual Intimate Image Abuse). Their free tool can help detect and remove intimate images and videos from the internet.
For victims under the age of 18, the Report Remove tool run by Childline and the Internet Watch Foundation helps young people to confidentially report sexual images and videos of themselves and remove them from the internet.
Victims First can provide emotional support to adults and young people that have experienced sextortion. Contact us on 0300 1234 148 or use our online form found at Get Support Now.