Protect The Innocent — Personal Safety Division
Protect Yourself Online
Predators and extortionists rely on you not knowing what to do next. This page is a plain, practical guide to locking down your privacy, recognizing threats early, and knowing exactly who to contact the moment something goes wrong — for yourself, a friend,
or your kids.
If you are being actively threatened, extorted, or are in immediate danger
Stop responding to the person threatening you and do not send anything else, including payment. Paying or complying almost never makes it stop — it signals that the threat works. Save every message, screenshot everything, and get
a trusted adult, parent, guardian, or law enforcement involved right now. This is not something to handle alone, and it is never your fault.
OPSEC (operational security) just means controlling what information about you is exposed, and to whom. Most people get doxxed, tracked, or targeted not because of one big mistake, but because small details add up across years of posts, accounts, and
habits.
Core habits
- Separate identities. Keep your real name, school/work, and location out of gaming, forum, and social handles. Never reuse the same username everywhere — it lets people link accounts together.
- Lock down metadata. Photos can carry GPS location data (EXIF). Strip it before posting, or just screenshot the photo instead of uploading the original file.
- Use unique passwords + a password manager. One breached password shouldn't unlock every account you own. Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) everywhere it's offered, ideally with an authenticator app rather than SMS.
- Assume screenshots are forever. Anything you send — including on "disappearing" apps — can be screenshotted, saved, and used later. Don't send anything you wouldn't want resurfacing in five years.
- Audit your old accounts. Search your own name, usernames, and old handles periodically. Delete or lock down accounts you no longer use.
- Be vague about routine. Avoid posting real-time location, your daily schedule, your school, or your street in the background of photos and videos.
Rule of thumb: if a stranger could piece together your city, school, workplace, and daily schedule from your public profiles, that's enough for someone with bad intentions to find you. Privacy isn't paranoia — it's just good hygiene.
Know The Threat
What Is Doxxing?
Doxxing is when someone gathers and publishes your private information — real name, home address, workplace, school, phone number, family members, photos — usually to intimidate, harass, or enable others to target you or your family in person.
How people get doxxed
Reused usernames across platforms, old forum posts, public WHOIS domain records, data broker sites, leaked breach data, EXIF data in photos, reverse image search, and simply oversharing personal details in casual conversation over months
or years.
Prevention basics
Use different handles per platform, remove your listing from data broker sites, set social accounts to private, avoid linking real photos to anonymous accounts, and don't confirm or deny personal details strangers guess at online.
If you've already been doxxed
- Document everything — screenshot the post, the URL, the username, and the date/time before it can be edited or deleted.
- Report the post to the platform it's on for harassment / posting private information (most platforms explicitly ban this).
- Lock down further exposure — change passwords, enable 2FA, and temporarily lock or deactivate exposed accounts.
- Tell someone you trust — a parent, guardian, or if you're an adult, a partner or close friend, so you're not monitoring this alone.
- If there are threats of violence or the address is being circulated to encourage harassment, file a police report and see the Swatting section below — a dox is often the first step before a swatting attempt.
Tools
VPNs — What They Do (and Don't)
A VPN (Virtual Private Network) routes your internet traffic through an encrypted tunnel to a server run by the VPN provider, hiding your real IP address from the sites and people you connect to.
What a VPN helps with
Hiding your real IP/location from someone trying to "IP grab" you in a game, DM, or voice call. Encrypting your traffic on public Wi-Fi. Reducing casual tracking by your ISP.
What it won't fix
A VPN doesn't undo a dox that already happened, doesn't stop platform-level tracking tied to your logged-in account, and doesn't protect you if you've already shared your real name or photos. It's one layer, not a cure-all.
Choosing one
- Pick a reputable, paid provider with a published, audited no-logs policy. Free VPNs often make money by logging and selling your data — the opposite of what you want.
- Look for a kill switch, which cuts your internet if the VPN connection drops, so you're never accidentally exposed.
- Turn it on before joining voice calls, games, or streams with strangers — not after someone already has your IP.
Physical Safety
Swatting — Prevention & Response
Swatting is when someone makes a false emergency report — a hostage situation, a bomb threat, a shooting — to your home address, hoping to trigger a large, armed police response. It is a felony in most jurisdictions and has resulted in deaths. The FBI
treats swatting as a serious, coordinated threat, often tied to doxxing and online extortion networks.
Reducing your risk
- Keep your address out of your digital footprint. Never post it, and check that it isn't exposed through old package/delivery screenshots, public voter records, or data broker sites.
- Register your address with your local 911 dispatch where available. Many U.S. counties support Smart911 (smart911.com) — a free safety profile that gives dispatchers context on your household in advance. Some departments
also maintain their own "swatting registry" or let you flag your address as a past target; call your local non-emergency police line to ask what's available in your area.
- Tell a trusted family member if you've received swatting threats, so the household isn't caught off guard.
- Take threats seriously even if they seem like a joke. If someone online says they know your address or is going to "call it in," treat it as real and report it before it happens, not after.
If a swatting incident happens: stay calm, keep your hands visible, follow all officer instructions exactly, and do not argue or reach for anything — sort out what happened afterward. Afterward, retain every piece of evidence (usernames,
threats, screenshots) and immediately report it to your local police department and the FBI at ic3.gov or tips.fbi.gov.
Active Situation
You're Being Extorted or Threatened Right Now
Sextortion and extortion scams are extremely common, fast-moving, and deliberately designed to make you panic and comply. Slowing down and getting help changes the outcome. You are not the first person this has happened to, and it is not your fault.
1
Stop engaging immediately
Do not send more images, do not pay, and do not delete the conversation. Paying or complying rarely ends it — it usually leads to more demands. Cutting off contact is not "giving up," it removes their leverage over your reactions.
2
Preserve every piece of evidence
Screenshot the full conversation, usernames, profile links, payment requests (including any crypto wallet address), and timestamps before blocking anyone. This evidence is what makes a report actionable.
3
Get a parent, guardian, or trusted adult involved
If you are a minor, this step is not optional — tell a parent or guardian as soon as you safely can. It feels terrifying to bring up, but reporting parents almost always react with relief and support, not anger, once they understand you're
being targeted by a criminal. If you're an adult, loop in someone you trust so you aren't carrying this alone; you can still involve law enforcement directly.
4
Report it — don't just block and hope it goes away
Report to the platform, and file a report with the resources below. Reporting doesn't guarantee your identity is exposed publicly — investigators handle these cases discreetly and have seen this exact scenario many times before.
5
Lock down your accounts
Change passwords, enable 2FA, and review privacy settings in case the extortionist has account access or is scraping your friends list to threaten sharing images with people you know.
Where To Actually Report
Who To Call
Immediate danger to life
If you or someone else is in immediate physical danger, or there is any risk of self-harm.
NCMEC CyberTipline
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children handles reports of sextortion, online enticement, and exploitation of minors, and can help get explicit images of you removed from the internet through their Take It Down tool.
FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
For online extortion, blackmail, sextortion, and swatting threats. Free, confidential, and available 24/7 — file even if you already paid.
StopNCII.org
Lets adults create a digital fingerprint (hash) of an intimate image so participating platforms can proactively block it from being uploaded — without you having to send the image itself to anyone.
Local police department
File a report through your non-emergency line, especially if there's a swatting threat, in-person danger, or the extortionist appears to know your real address.
Search "[your city] police non-emergency number"
P.T.I Case Intake
If the person targeting you is connected to a group or network you want documented and investigated, submit a case through our main channel — we work case-by-case with an evidence-first approach and can point you toward the right agency.
Note: none of these resources require you to know exactly who is doing this to you, and none of them require you to have "proof" beyond your own screenshots. Start with whichever one feels most reachable — the important part is starting.
Supporting Others
If A Friend Has Been Through This
Finding out a friend is being extorted, was doxxed, or was targeted by a predator is scary for you too. How you respond in the first conversation matters — people in this situation are often deciding whether telling anyone was a mistake.
Do
Believe them without question. Thank them for telling you. Stay calm — your reaction sets the tone. Help them save evidence before anything gets deleted. Gently encourage them to involve a parent, guardian, or the resources above, and
offer to sit with them while they do it if they want company.
Avoid
Blaming them or asking why they sent anything in the first place. Pressuring them to handle it entirely on their own. Sharing what happened with others without their permission. Promising to "keep it secret" instead of encouraging them
to get real help — secrecy is what extortionists rely on.
Practical ways to help
- Help them screenshot everything calmly, before blocking anyone.
- Sit with them while they tell a parent, guardian, or file a report — showing up is often the biggest help you can give.
- Check in afterward. Reporting an extortion case is a relief but also draining; a normal, low-pressure check-in a few days later goes a long way.
- Watch for signs of ongoing distress — withdrawal, trouble sleeping, sudden changes in mood. If you're worried about their safety, involve a trusted adult, school counselor, or professional rather than trying to manage it by yourself.
Guardians & Parents
Keeping Kids Safe Online
Federal agencies have repeatedly warned that online extortion networks specifically target minors through gaming platforms and social media, sometimes escalating into sextortion, swatting, or worse. The goal isn't to eliminate your kid's online life —
it's to keep the lines of communication open so they come to you the moment something feels wrong.
Build a "no-judgment" reporting habit
- Say it before anything happens: "If anyone online ever pressures, threatens, or asks you for anything inappropriate, you will never be in trouble for telling me — no matter what already happened." Kids delay disclosure for weeks
or months mainly out of fear of punishment or shame.
- React calmly if they do come to you. Panic or anger, even understandable anger at the predator, can make a kid regret speaking up. Save the reaction for the person who deserves it.
- Ask open questions regularly, not just after something goes wrong: who they talk to online, which platforms they use, whether anyone has asked to move a conversation to a more private app.
Warning signs to watch for
- Sudden secrecy about devices, or switching screens/apps when you walk in.
- New, unexplained online "friends," especially adults, or a much older gaming/chat contact.
- Withdrawal, anxiety, or mood changes tied to phone or computer use.
- Unexplained gifts, in-game currency, or money — sometimes used by predators to build trust.
- Reluctance to hand over a device, or panic when a notification appears.
Practical steps
- Use built-in parental controls on gaming consoles, phones, and platforms rather than covert spyware — transparency preserves trust better than secret monitoring, and older kids especially tend to route around anything that feels
like surveillance.
- Keep shared devices in shared spaces for younger kids, and set expectations together about privacy settings rather than dictating them unilaterally as kids get older.
- Learn the platforms they actually use. Threats increasingly move through gaming voice chat and DMs on platforms parents don't check as often as mainstream social media.
- Know where to go if something happens: the NCMEC CyberTipline and FBI IC3 resources above are built for exactly this, and reporting doesn't require you to have everything figured out first.