Reporting resources: evidence and next steps

If your child faces an immediate threat of physical harm, has a specific imminent threat, or may hurt themselves or someone else, call 911. Contact emergency services first. Everything on this page can wait; that cannot.

These reporting resources focus on the practical mechanics: what to save, in what order, who to tell, and what actually happens after you press the button. It is deliberately unglamorous, because the moment you need it you will not want to be reading an essay.

What to take away

Save the evidence before you block anything

This is the step people skip, and it is the one that is hard to undo. Blocking an account very often removes your ability to see what it sent. Deleting a chat removes it for you, not for them.

Capture, before anything else:

Take screenshots on the device, then move copies somewhere off that device: a folder in your own cloud storage or email, not just the phone's camera roll where your child will see them every time they open their photos. Capture the account handle and profile link, any visible account ID, the date and time, the post or message, and the full conversation with enough surrounding context to show what happened.

Two cautions. Do not save, forward, or copy sexual images of a minor, even your own child's, even to show someone what happened: describe them instead, and hand it to the police and the platform. And keep the evidence somewhere your child does not have to look at, while telling them that it exists and why.

Block, mute, restrict, report: they do different jobs

Most situations need several of these. The order that usually works: capture the evidence, tighten the settings, report, then block. Teen social media use covers doing the settings part before there is anything to report, which takes about twenty minutes and is far easier than doing it in a bad week.

How platform reporting actually works

Most major platforms provide an in-app reporting route, often behind the three dots on a post or profile, plus a safety or help center. Menu names vary, so use the in-app route rather than a general contact form; it attaches the specific content automatically. On Instagram, open the post or profile, tap the three dots, choose Report, and select the reason that genuinely fits.

What to expect, so none of it lands as a blow:

The category you choose matters. Reports are triaged by the reason you pick. Bullying, threats of violence, impersonation, and content involving a minor go down very different routes with very different urgency. Read the options and choose the one that genuinely fits, not the first plausible one.

Most first-pass review is automated. These systems are good at things that are unambiguous on their face and poor at cruelty that depends on context: an in-joke that is a threat if you know the history, a photograph that is humiliating only because of who is in it. If context is what makes it harmful, say so plainly in the free-text box.

You will often be told it doesn't breach the guidelines. This is common, and it is not a ruling on whether your child was harmed. It usually means the content did not match a rule as written.

Check for a review option if the platform says the content does not breach its rules. On Instagram, open Settings and activity > Help > Support Requests > Reports, select the report, and choose Request a review if that option appears. A review is not available for every report or decision.

Reporting the account and reporting the post are different actions. A pattern spread across many posts is usually better addressed at the account level.

Keep the reference. Screenshot the confirmation, note the date, keep any case number. If this escalates, being able to say "sent on the 4th, reference X, nothing back" is worth a great deal.

Ask your child to report from their account too, if they are willing. A complaint from the person actually targeted carries information yours does not.

If images of your child have been shared, use the platform's specific route for intimate or non-consensual images, or for a minor's safety, rather than a general bullying complaint. NCMEC's Take It Down can help with intimate images made when the person was under 18; do not upload or send the image itself. Where a minor is involved, go to the police as well, and do not wait for the platform to respond first.

Involving the school

Schools deal with online conflict between their pupils constantly, and something happening at midnight on an app has never made it irrelevant to them: the children involved sit in the same rooms the next morning.

Put it in writing, even if you also phone. A short email with dates, names, what happened, what you have already done, and what you are asking for is far more use than a conversation nobody minuted.

Ask what their process is rather than assuming, and ask two specific questions: what changes for your child tomorrow, and how they will handle it without making it obvious who raised it. That second one is often the reason your child didn't want you to call at all. School guidance covers this properly.

When it becomes a police matter

Some things are past the platform and past the school. Take them to the police and let people whose job this is decide what they are: you do not have to be certain first.

In the United States, these cases can reach dedicated investigative units rather than a school or a platform. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention describes the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force program. You can contact your local ICAC Task Force, the FBI field office serving your area, or state police and ask where to report; elsewhere, contact the police service where you live.

Bring the log and the saved evidence. Ask for the reference number and who to contact for updates.

Helplines, and how to find the right one

For families in the United States, these named services provide crisis support and routes for reporting online child sexual exploitation.

U.S. reporting and support routes:

For current web reporting options, use the service's official site; for current platform menus and appeals, use the platform's safety center. Menu names and options can change. Write down the contact options you might need somewhere you will find them at eleven at night, before you need them.

Where the strain is doing visible damage regardless of what any report is doing, mental wellbeing covers making that call without waiting for a process to finish.

Keep a log

One document. Date, what happened, what you did, who you told, what they said, any reference number. Add to it as things happen rather than reconstructing it weeks later.

It sounds bureaucratic and it is the single most useful thing you will own. It turns "this has been going on for ages" into something a school or an officer can act on, and it spares you from holding the whole sequence in your head during the week you are least able to.

What to tell your child about all this

Tell them what you are doing before you do it. Tell them what you have saved and where. Tell them honestly that this process is slow and often disappointing, so that a "no breach found" doesn't land as nobody believes me.

And let them do as much of it themselves as they can manage. A young person who has learned to capture evidence, tighten their own settings, and raise their own complaint has something more durable than one solved incident: they know what to do next time, which is the outcome you actually want.

Cyberbullying covers the other half: what to notice and how to respond without making it worse. The National Library of Medicine keeps a general reference on bullying and cyberbullying for neutral background.

This is also not the week to change device settings as a response. That reads as punishment for telling you. parental controls covers why that costs more than it gains.

Common questions

The platform said there was no breach. Is that the end of it?

Of that route, usually, and only after the appeal. It says nothing about the school route, the police route where it applies, or your own record, and nothing at all about whether your child was wronged.

How long does any of this take?

Nobody can tell you, and anyone who does is guessing. Ask each body you contact how long their process usually runs, then chase a few days past the answer they gave you.

My child does not want anything reported.

Ask what they think reporting will cause, because the fear is usually specific. Preserve the evidence anyway, so that not reporting today does not mean being unable to report later, and agree the smallest step you can both accept.

Can I get something removed from everywhere?

No route can promise that, and a copy someone already saved is outside all of them. Report each item through the platform's own process, keep the references, and say honestly to your child that removal is requested rather than guaranteed.