Internet Safety Month

OJJDP observes Internet Safety Month each June to raise awareness about the dangers kids encounter online and provide resources to help keep them safe. OJJDP's commitment to youth safety extends to every aspect of their lives, and the Internet—while an extraordinary tool when used correctly—poses distinct risks, especially with AI's rapid advances. Every child is vulnerable.

Sextortion

Adolescents are especially susceptible to sextortion: when someone posing as a peer targets kids online, coerces them into sending nude or sexually explicit images, and then extorts them for money or additional images, threatening to expose them across the Internet if they don't comply. OJJDP remains committed to protecting youth from sextortion, to helping them build protective factors to mitigate their risk, and to prosecuting the people who extort them. 

OJJDP's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) program has created several guides on sextortion to ensure that youth, parents, law enforcement professionals, and practitioners in child-serving professions can access resources to help young victims.

• I am a victim of sextortion, what can I do? explains how youth can respond to sextortion, protect themselves against future victimization, and connect with trusted organizations who can help.
• Law Enforcement Guide explains sextortion and introduces law enforcement professionals to the I am a victim of sextortion, what can I do? resource.
• The Preventing Sextortion Among Youth infographic explains sextortion and offers parents tips for discussing it with their children.
• The Sexting: Tips for Parents & Youth fact sheet helps parents discuss sexting dangers with their children.

The Silicon Valley (California) ICAC task force created a Sextortion Awareness video featuring a mother sharing the story of her teenage son, who died by suicide after suffering sextortion. 

OJJDP's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program

OJJDP launched the ICAC program in 1998 in response to the growing presence of youth online, increased activity by individuals targeting and harming kids, and the alarming proliferation of child sexual abuse images. OJJDP funding supports the ICAC task forces, which investigate and prosecute technology-facilitated crimes against children. The national ICAC network comprises 61 task forces representing thousands of federal, state, local, and Tribal law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies. ICAC has created numerous resources on digital safety, including:

• Internet Safety web page.
• Start the Conversation: Teens and Screens tip sheet.
• Start the Conversation: Cyberbullying tip sheet.
• Start the Conversation: Toddlers & Technology tip sheet.

ICAC's Online Child Exploitation Safety Prevention Initiative (OCEPI) has developed numerous resources for school-based and youth-serving professionals, including a list of best practices and guidance on generative AI. The initiative's expert members include federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, ICAC task force members, researchers, educators, and others who specialize in protecting children and preventing online exploitation.

OJJDP's Partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

OJJDP partners with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), the nation's information clearinghouse and resource center for families of missing and exploited children and the professionals who serve them. NCMEC's numerous programs include a 24-hour missing children's hotline; the Child Victim Identification Program, which helps authorities identify children depicted in sexual abuse materials; and the CyberTipline, which processes reports of online child sexual exploitation. 

The CyberTipline received 21.3 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation in 2025, with dramatic increases in reports of online enticement of children for sexual acts (up 158 percent over 2024) and child sex trafficking (up 323 percent over 2024). The 2025 CyberTipline Report identified continued increases in reports of financial sextortion and the use of generative AI in child sexual exploitation. The report also noted a more-than 125 percent increase in reports of sadistic online exploitation—when violent groups or individuals target children and pressure them into creating sexual abuse materials exploiting other children.

OJJDP-NCMEC collaborations include:

• Take It Down, a free service enabling users to remove or stop the online sharing of nude, partially nude, and sexually explicit photos and videos taken when they were younger than 18. Take It Down is completely anonymous and youth do not need to download or share the image or video to use the service. Take It Down generates a unique digital fingerprint—a "hash value"—for each image or video; online platforms then scan for the hash value to identify and remove the material.
• The Safety Pledge website includes a resource toolkit and other free resources to help parents, educators, and caregivers understand and respond to the risks children face online.
• The 2025 NCMEC Transparency Report complements the 2025 CyberTipline Report, providing additional details on reports made to the CyberTipline.

The NCMEC website lists many other resources addressing digital safety, including:

• NetSmartz Into the Cloud series, for use with children age 11 and younger. Season 1 introduces strategies for online safety, and season 2 focuses on preventing online exploitation and removing inappropriate content. Season 3, designed especially for children ages 10 and 11, addresses online exploitation, including sextortion and generative AI victimization. Season 3 titles include: "GOTCHA!" (in English and Spanish), "Don't Share That" (in English and Spanish), and "That's Not Me!" (in English and Spanish).  
• NetSmartz Internet Safety at Home tip sheet for parents, available in both English and Spanish.
• Internet Safety & Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) presentation, a PowerPoint awareness session designed for parents.