You deserve to feel safe

What happened is not your fault. Move to a safer place if you can, tell an adult you trust, and keep asking until someone acts. You do not have to prove everything before asking for help.

If a friend tells you something is happening to them, how you respond in that first moment matters more than having the right words. Find a private moment, put your phone away, and let them go at their own pace. You don't need every detail to help them.

• Listen first. Don't interrupt to ask for proof or push for details they haven't offered.
• Believe them. Most young people who disclose abuse are telling the truth.
• Don't promise total secrecy. Instead, say you want to help them tell a trusted adult, together if that helps.
• If they're in danger right now, involve a trusted adult or emergency service immediately, even if they ask you not to.
• Don't confront the person they say is hurting them. It can make the situation more dangerous.
• Look after yourself too. Carrying this for a friend is heavy, so talk to a trusted adult about how you're feeling.

Grooming and exploitation often move fast once someone has a photo or a hold over you, so knowing your next three moves in advance makes it easier to act instead of freezing.

• Stop responding. Don't pay, negotiate, apologise or send anything else: that rarely stops the demands.
• Block the account on every platform it has contacted you from, then report it using the platform's own reporting tool.
• Save the evidence first: screenshot usernames, dates, links and messages before you block, in case they're needed later.
• Never forward or redistribute sexual images of a child, including images of yourself. Save them privately or report through the platform instead.
• Tell a trusted adult even if you feel embarrassed. This is a common tactic used against many young people, not a reflection on you.

When panic, flashbacks or a racing mind take over, grounding techniques pull your attention back into your body and the present moment. They don't fix the underlying situation, but they can make the next five minutes easier to get through.

• 5-4-3-2-1: name five things you can see, four you can feel, three you can hear, two you can smell and one you can taste.
• Slow your breathing: in for four counts, hold for four, out for six. Repeat until your shoulders drop.
• Press your feet flat on the floor and notice the surface under them. It's a fast way to leave a spiral in your head.
• Move somewhere physically safer if you can, and stay near a person you trust while you ride it out.

A safety plan is short on purpose: a few concrete answers, decided before you're in crisis, so you're not trying to think clearly for the first time in a dangerous moment.

• Two trusted adults you can contact, and how (phone, in person, a note passed at school).
• One place you can go that feels physically safer, even for a few hours.
• A code word or phrase you can text or say to signal you need help without explaining everything.
• What you'd take with you if you had to leave quickly, and where it's kept.