Call or text 988.
The Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is free, confidential, and available 24/7 by phone, text, or chat. It is staffed by people trained to talk to a teenager about this. You do not have to have a plan, and you do not have to be certain.
If there is immediate danger to life, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department.
These answer 24 hours a day, every day.
All of them are free. Most are also free for families and for anyone concerned about a young person.
Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Call, text, or chat. Veterans Crisis Line: press 1. Spanish and over 240 other languages available.
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (older number)
1-800-273-8255. Still active and still free, though 988 routes faster to local support.
Trevor Project
1-866-488-7386. For LGBTQ+ young people, and anyone who needs someone who will not flinch at that part of the conversation.
NCMEC CyberTipline
1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678), or report at reportharmfulcontent.cybertip.org. For child sexual abuse material, sextortion, and online exploitation. Reports are investigated by NCMEC, not by us.
Eating Disorders
National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) helpline and referral service: 1-800-375-7767, or nationaleatingdisorders.org. Family support and treatment navigation.
National Runaway SafeLine
1-800-843-5678 is NCMEC’s general line. For a young person who has run away or is not safe where they are, call the National Runaway Safeline: 1-800-RUNAWAY (1-800-786-2949).
Phone numbers for U.S. residents. If you are outside the U.S., contact your local emergency number, or findahelpline.com for your country.
Save the evidence first, then report it.
If a minor is being sextorted or groomed online, the content may be the only proof that exists. Screenshot before you delete anything, and before you block.
Do not pay. Extortionists run on the assumption that shame keeps families silent. Paying frequently does not end it, and in documented sextortion cases it has led to escalation, not resolution. There are prosecutions now that were built on saved evidence.
Do not delete, block first, or confront. Blocking can move a child to a worse situation; the contact is evidence. Save everything, then report.
Report to NCMEC. CyberTipline receives reports of suspected child sexual abuse material, and its analysts can act on them. Law enforcement can be involved through them.
Then, if you want to talk to a lawyer. Our sextortion, grooming, and exploitation practice area covers what the internal record documents about underage account detection, encryption tradeoffs, and recommendation pathways. Send a request for review and a lawyer will respond within two business days.
This page is informational. It is not legal advice, and it does not create an attorney-client relationship.
Six things you can do tonight.
This is not a legal strategy. It is what helps when someone will not eat, will not talk, or will not stop scrolling.
Do not take the phone away tonight.
Confiscating a device from a child in crisis can escalate everything. It removes their lifeline at the exact moment they need one, and you will lose sight of what is happening. Take it when you have a plan, not in the middle of an argument.
Lower the temperature.
Confrontation about screen time produces a performance, not a disclosure. If someone is willing to talk to you at all tonight, it is usually not during an argument about the phone.
Ask one open question, then be quiet.
“Are you okay?” is usually better than a list. Silence after a question feels like failure and is actually the invitation.
Call your pediatrician and ask for a same-week appointment.
You do not need to explain the whole theory. Weight change, missed periods, withdrawal, sleep changes, and a mood shift after coming off the phone are enough for a clinician to want to see them.
Know the line for admission.
If they cannot keep food or fluids down, cannot sleep for more than a day or two, are hallucinating, or have stopped speaking to everyone — that is an emergency department, tonight, not a waiting list.
Write down the dates now.
When it started, when you first noticed, when a clinician first said something. Three lines on paper is worth more in six months than a perfect recollection.
If there is danger right now
Call 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or 911 for immediate danger.