Raf I'm really sorry to ask but I don't understand the forms and I saw you talking with that other anon who's actually monitoring stuff. I saw someone's profile on another site describing themself as a pedo and their "age of attraction" as 5 to 15. Is that something I can report to Cybertip? And if so what option would I report it as?
yeah, that's one of the things about cybertip that can be a bit of a barrier to making a thorough, actionable report. so, to report a person, you're going to select the neither - i saw or head something but i don't know the victim, then the date the post was made (if you have it. if not, fill in the date and time you saw it). use "it hasn't occured yet" if there hasn't been any actionsble threat made towards a minor - actionable here means you've seen them discuss a minor in their life that they intend to harm, such as bringing that minor over to their home, sending that minor unsafe content, or encouraging that minor to join them in a call or stream where they could be recorded without their consent or coerced into audio/visual sexual explotation. then, mark the incident as ongoing, since their online presence is used pretty much exclusively for the purpose of connecting with other pedophiles, advocating for the acceptance of pedophiles, and luring/grooming minors. in any case, unless there has been an actionable threat made, there's no need to state that your in fear for your own or a child's safety - nine times out of ten, they'll direct you to call the police instead of making the tip. in order to report a Website to cybertip, use the URL option, incidence of yesterday/today/now, then fill out the date and time that you're making the report, select ongoing, and it should have already selected online for you. then, use the little dropdown box to select the type of incident (for websites, it's typically nude/sexual images of a child or manipulated websites/domains, and for people it's typically chatting online to a child about sex, unwanted sexual emails/texts involving a child, or misleading words used to display sexual content.) from there, it'll take you to a second and third page where you'll describe your tip in detail, so this is where it counts: give them everything you know about the report you're making, urls for the user, post, or site involved, approximate location (us or international), approximate frequency of uploads, and anything else you know. every little bit helps.
one thing to note: unfortunately, there are some things you just can't report via cybertip. anything that isn't an image (such as written works or drawings featuring the sexual exploitation/abuse of minors) isn't considered actionable, and will gum up the works for the main reason cybertip exists - in-person abuse is the main priority, and anything that isn't helping to prevent in-person abuse or reporting actual photographic evidence of csam/csem makes it harder for volunteers and trained specialists to sift through tips and get to vulnerable kids in time. while it's distasteful and absolutely should be illegal, do not submit these kinds of things to cybertip. hopefully, when laws catch up or a new tipline is made specifically for fictional works of child sexual exploitation/abuse meant for the titillation of adults, i can amend this to add where you can go and how to fill out a report.
(also! never be afraid to ask for help. i wouldn't have included cybertip in my pinned if i wasn't ready and willing to help others use it to the best of their ability, and making a good tip report is a skill that's important and necesssary to share with others even outside of online spaces. if i had kids, one of the first things i would teach them before letting them online is what cybertip is and how to appropriately and accurately use it)
