# Sextortion

> Threatening to share somebody's intimate images unless they pay or send more.

- Page: https://navenapp.com/glossary/sextortion
- Last updated: 2026-10-15
- Published by: Naven, a free messaging app that runs in a web browser (https://navenapp.com/about)

Sextortion is blackmail with intimate images. Somebody obtains a sexual picture or video — often by pretending to be a peer and sending one first — and then threatens to share it with the victim's friends, family or school unless they pay money or send more images. Teenagers, and teenage boys in particular, are frequent targets of the version that demands money.

What to do: stop replying, do not pay or send anything more, keep the messages and the account name as evidence, block and report the account, and tell an adult you trust. In the United States, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children runs the CyberTipline (report.cybertip.org) and Take It Down (takeitdown.ncmec.org), which helps remove intimate images of people who were under 18 from participating platforms.

## Where Naven stands

Sexual exploitation or abuse is one of the twelve categories Naven screens for before a message is delivered, and anything sexual involving a minor suspends an account on the first instance. Pictures are examined by an image model, but that check is newer and weaker than the text screen and must not be relied on. Every conversation's menu has Block and Report.

See also [Grooming](https://navenapp.com/glossary/grooming), [Image screening](https://navenapp.com/glossary/image-screening), [Blocking](https://navenapp.com/glossary/blocking) and [Harassment](https://navenapp.com/glossary/harassment).

![Naven on a phone, explaining why a message was not sent: it gave away where somebody lives](https://navenapp.com/shots/phone-screening.webp)  
What it looks like in Naven: a screenshot of the app.

## Naven, in brief

- **Price:** Free. No ads, no paid tier
- **Phone number:** Never asked for
- **To install:** Nothing. It runs in a browser
- **End-to-end encrypted:** No. Messages are screened before they send
- **Works on:** Phones, tablets, laptops, Chromebooks

### What it will not do

- Screen calls. Only messages are screened
- Catch everything. The screen misses things, and is weaker outside English
- Promise security. Naven promises none; the terms say so plainly

**Naven is a free messenger that runs in your browser.** No phone number, nothing to install, and no new password.