AI can now put your face on an image you never took. The violation is real even when the picture technically isn't. Non-consensual intimate imagery used to mean a real private photo shared without permission. Now it also means an AI-generated fake - your face pasted onto explicit content you never posed for. Both are a violation, and both are increasingly aimed at streamers, community members, and exes.
If you are in immediate danger, stop reading and call your local emergency number now - 911 in the US and Canada, 999 in the UK and Ireland, 000 in Australia, 111 in New Zealand, or 112 across most of Europe.
The law is newer and patchier here, but most major platforms now ban it outright, and a growing number of countries and states have made it a specific offense. Either way, you don't have to prove it's "real enough" to matter - the harm to you is real regardless.
Tell someone you trust. And if you're a minor, or a minor is depicted, this is child exploitation regardless of how it was generated - use the reporting line for your country in the note above. None of this happened because of something you did.
Services and numbers change over time. If one of these is wrong or missing for your country, telling us is worth more than anything else on this page.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-799-7233, or text START to 88788, 24/7 and confidential (thehotline.org). To report a child being groomed or exploited online, contact the NCMEC CyberTipline at 1-800-843-5678 or CyberTipline.org. For a mental-health crisis, call or text 988; call 911 for immediate danger.
Kids Help Phone supports anyone up to 29, day or night, at 1-800-668-6868 or by texting CONNECT to 686868. For domestic violence, your province runs its own helpline - search "[your province] domestic violence helpline" or call 211 to be connected. Call or text 988 for a mental-health crisis; call 911 for immediate danger.
Refuge runs the UK's National Domestic Abuse Helpline free, 24/7, at 0808 2000 247. For a child at risk, call the NSPCC helpline at 0808 800 5000, or Childline at 0800 1111 if you're the young person. Report online grooming to CEOP at ceop.police.uk. Samaritans (116 123) will listen any time; call 999 for immediate danger.
1800RESPECT is Australia's national sexual assault and domestic/family violence counselling line, 24/7, at 1800 737 732. Kids Helpline is 1800 55 1800. Report online grooming or exploitation to the eSafety Commissioner (esafety.gov.au) or ThinkUKnow. Lifeline (13 11 14) offers crisis support; call 000 for immediate danger.
Women's Refuge runs a crisis line 24/7 at 0800 733 843. Netsafe (netsafe.org.nz) takes reports of online grooming and harm. For general crisis support, call or text 1737 any time. Call 111 for immediate danger.
Women's Aid runs a 24-hour National Freephone Helpline at 1800 341 900. The Rape Crisis Centre's national helpline is 1800 77 8888, and Childline (ISPCC) is 1800 66 66 66 for children and young people. Report child sexual abuse material online at Hotline.ie. Call 112 or 999 for immediate danger.
There isn't one worldwide number, so use a directory you can trust: Befrienders Worldwide (befrienders.org) lists real crisis lines by country, and Child Helpline International (childhelplineinternational.org) does the same for children and teens. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, contact your local emergency number right now.
Increasingly, yes. A growing number of countries and US states specifically criminalize non-consensual intimate imagery whether or not it was generated, and platform rules ban it almost universally regardless of local law.
Report it to the platform under its non-consensual intimate imagery rule, which nearly every major platform has and enforces faster than a generic report. StopNCII.org can also stop an image spreading across participating platforms.
Yes. The harm is that people see your face attached to it, and that is exactly what the person made it for. "It is not technically you" is a technicality that helps nobody standing in your shoes.
You are allowed to, and it is often worth telling the handful of people whose opinion actually affects your life. You are not obligated to defend yourself to an audience.
NCMEC's Take It Down service in the US, or your national equivalent listed further down this page. These are built for this, they are free, and they do not require you to send the image.
It usually starts with a compliment and ends with a threat within the hour. Speed is the whole trick - so is knowing what to do before it happens.
Your name, address, or workplace posted for strangers to see. Here's what to do in the first hour, and after.
One unwanted message is annoying. A pattern that follows you across platforms, accounts, and time is something else.
Hotline advocates spend most of their time talking with people still working out whether their situation counts. You are allowed to call to think out loud.