Online abuse
If someone threatens to share intimate images of you, or makes fake ones.
This page is being checked by a lawyer. Use it as general information for now.
You are the one being harmed. You are not in trouble. This is true even if you sent the picture yourself, and it is true if the image is fake.
What to do
Don’t pay, and don’t send anything more
Paying or sending more pictures rarely makes it stop. It usually leads to more demands.
Don’t delete anything
Take screenshots of the messages, the profile and the link, with the date showing. This is your evidence. Save it before you block the person.
Tell someone you trust
A parent, a teacher, a counsellor, a friend. People who do this count on you being too ashamed to tell anyone.
Report it to the app or website
Use the report button on the post or the profile. Under India’s IT Rules, changed in February 2026, platforms must take down intimate or fake sexual images of you within 2 hours of your complaint.
Report it as a cybercrime
Go to cybercrime.gov.in and choose the option for crimes against women and children, or call 1930. You can also go to any police station.
Stop the image spreading
These free tools block an image on the big platforms. The image never leaves your phone. They work from a digital fingerprint of it.
- If you were under 18 in the image: Take It Down
- If you were 18 or older in the image: StopNCII.org
If the image is fake
A fake or edited sexual image of you, including one made with AI, is treated the same way. Follow the same steps. It does not matter that the picture is not real. Sharing it, or threatening to, is against the law.
If you are under 18
- Tell a trusted adult or call the Child Helpline on 1098. The adult will need to report it, and that is to protect you
- If someone sends you a private picture of a classmate, don’t forward it and don’t keep it. Tell an adult. Keeping or sharing a sexual image of anyone under 18 is a serious offence, even as a joke
How this is against the law
Threatening to share someone’s images to get money, more images or anything else is a crime. So is taking or sharing private images without consent, and so is creating, keeping or sharing sexual images of a child. These fall under the BNS, the IT Act and POCSO.
Where this comes from
For lawyers and counsellors checking this page.
| Point | Source |
|---|---|
| 2-hour takedown of intimate and morphed images | IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021, as amended with effect from 20 February 2026 |
| Capturing or sharing private images | IT Act 2000, ss. 66E, 67, 67A; BNS s. 77 |
| Sexual images of children | IT Act s. 67B; POCSO Act ss. 13 to 15 |
| Extortion; criminal intimidation | BNS ss. 308, 351 |
| Stalking online | BNS s. 78 |
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