AIP 125 · Youth & Community Leaders
Teen Peer Ambassadors
Learn how to be a good friend and a safe upstander: help someone who is being pressured or sextorted, protect privacy, and bring in a trusted adult, without playing detective.
What you will be able to do
- Explain why sextortion is a crime against the target, not their fault.
- Say the right first words to a friend who is being pressured or blackmailed.
- Be an upstander without chasing, baiting or exposing anyone.
- Protect privacy and consent online, yours and others’.
- Know exactly when and how to bring in a trusted adult.
1 Module 1 of 4 · 30 min
You are not the problem: how pressure and blackmail work
- Explain how online pressure and sextortion usually start.
- Say why the person targeted is never to blame.
- Spot the warning signs of a pressure scheme.
People who blackmail teens online are skilled at it. They often pretend to be someone your age, move fast, and use fear of embarrassment. Anyone can be caught out. Smart, careful people are targeted every day.
| What you might see | What it can mean |
|---|---|
| A new ‘friend’ who is very flirty very fast | A pressure scheme starting |
| Someone asks to move to a private app | They want fewer people watching |
| Someone sends you a photo and asks for one back | A trap |
| Threats: “I’ll send this to everyone you know” | Blackmail, which is a crime |
| A demand for gift cards, cash apps or crypto | Money scam |
Say this to yourself and to your friends
If someone tricks or threatens you, it is a crime against you. You are not in trouble for telling an adult. You are not the problem. The person doing it is.
Related
A friend stops answering and looks scared. Later they tell you they sent a photo to someone on a game app, and now that person says they will share it.
What do you say first?
Show the debrief
Say: “I’m really glad you told me. This is not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong. We’re going to get help.” Don’t ask “why did you send it?”. Don’t blame. Then encourage them to tell a trusted adult together.
Knowledge check
2 Module 2 of 4 · 30 min
Upstander, not detective
- Name safe actions you can take as an upstander.
- Name actions you must not take.
- Explain why you never go after a suspect yourself.
Being an upstander means helping the person who is being targeted. It does not mean catching the person who is doing it. That is a job for trained adults and police.
- Stay with your friend and listen.
- Tell them how to reach a trusted adult, and offer to go with them.
- Help them block and report the account in the app after an adult has helped save the details.
- Check in again the next day.
- Never message, threaten, trick or try to ‘catch’ the person doing it.
- Never ask a friend to send you the image. Never ask anyone for it.
- Never forward, post or save images of anyone under 18.
- Never share a friend’s story with the group chat.
If you ever see or are sent a sexual image of someone under 18, do not open, forward or save it. Tell a trusted adult. You can report to NCMEC at report.cybertip.org.
A nude image of a classmate lands in a group chat. Someone says, “Everyone forward it so the school sees who started it.”
What do you do?
Show the debrief
Do not forward it, and do not save or screenshot it. Tell the group that sharing it is a crime and hurts the person in it. Tell a trusted adult right away. Report the content in the app and to NCMEC. Take the lead without leading a hunt.
Knowledge check
3 Module 3 of 4 · 30 min
Privacy and consent online
- Explain consent for images and information.
- Reduce what others can learn about you from public posts.
- Handle a friend’s private information with care.
Privacy is not hiding. It is choosing who knows what about you. Consent is the same idea for other people’s images and stories.
- Set your accounts to private and check who follows you.
- Turn off precise location tags on posts and photos.
- Use a different password on every account and turn on two-step verification.
- Ask before you post a photo of someone else.
- Think twice before sharing school names, jerseys or schedules.
| If someone asks for… | Ask yourself |
|---|---|
| A private photo | Would I be okay if this were public? Am I choosing this freely? |
| Your address, school or schedule | Why do they need it? Do I know them in person? |
| To keep a secret from your parents | Why does it have to be secret? |
Sharing or making an intimate image of someone under 18, including fake images made with AI, is a serious crime and a serious harm, even as a ‘joke’.
A classmate uses an app to put a friend’s face on a fake nude image and says, “Relax, it isn’t real.”
What do you say, and who do you tell?
Show the debrief
Say the image is harmful and illegal even though it is fake, and that you will not pass it on. Tell a trusted adult and the school. Do not forward or save it. Support the friend who is the target.
Knowledge check
4 Module 4 of 4 · 30 min
When and how to bring in a trusted adult
- Choose a trusted adult and plan what to say.
- Know when you must bring in an adult right away.
- Know where an adult can report.
Bringing in an adult is not a failure and it is not ‘snitching’. It is what keeps people safe. Some things are too big for friends to handle alone.
| Bring in an adult right away if… | Examples |
|---|---|
| Someone is in danger or talking about self-harm | Call 911. For distress, call or text 988 |
| A friend is being blackmailed or threatened | Go together to a parent, counselor or teacher |
| An adult is asking a minor for images, money or secrecy | Tell a trusted adult now |
| You are not sure | Tell an adult anyway |
How to start
“I need help with something serious. It’s about a friend and I’m worried. Can you listen without getting upset?”
“Someone online is threatening my friend. We need to report it.”
Don’t have an adult you trust? Text or call 988, or use Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. Both are free and private.
Your friend is afraid their parents will be angry. They ask you to ‘just keep it between us’.
What do you say?
Show the debrief
Be honest and kind: “I care about you too much to keep this secret. Let’s tell [counselor, parent, or another adult] together. I’ll go with you.” You can offer to be there, to choose the adult together, or to call a hotline together, but you cannot keep a safety issue secret.
Knowledge check
★ Capstone
Make your peer-support plan
The capstone is how you show you can do the work, not just answer questions. It produces something real that you keep.
- Write down two trusted adults you could go to, and what you would say.
- Write a short script for what you would say first to a friend who is being pressured.
- Review the privacy settings on one of your accounts with a parent or guardian.
- Explain to a parent or guardian what you will never do, such as asking for images or confronting a suspect.
How it is reviewed
- Names real, trusted adults.
- Script is supportive and blame-free.
- Includes the rule never to ask for, save or forward images.
- States that a safety issue is never kept secret.
- Parent or guardian has seen the plan.
Pass every module check at 80% or better, finish the capstone, then follow the steps on the credentials page to request your certificate.
Companion playbooks
- Sextortion: the family response playbook
- AI-generated fake images (“nudify” and deepfakes): the response playbook
AIP Academy courses are awareness and skills training. They are not legal, medical or clinical advice, and an AIP certificate is not a license, state or professional accreditation, CLE credit, or a promise of employment. In an emergency call 911.
Safety is built before the crisis
Pick your part and see it through. Prevention works when people follow through.