I've been a volunteer counselor for the Crisis Text Line since December, aiding many kinds of people of diverse ages and backgrounds across the country. Two weeks ago, I was having trouble sleeping at 5 a.m. I decided to put my early morning to good use and go on the "line" to take an extra shift from home.

It was a shift I won't soon forget. "Jim" (he never told me his real name) was 19 and was texting--incredibly upset and fearful--because he'd sent nude images of himself to a woman in the Philippines over social media, and was now being blackmailed. If he didn't fork hundreds of dollars by midnight, the woman (or, more likely, the criminals who'd impersonated her) assured Jim they would forward his photos to his hundreds of TikTok contacts.

"My life, my career," he told me. "They're ruined."

Sextortion. It's not a new Internet trend, but it's been rising recently. It means panic and heartache for teens who find themselves in way over their heads. Tragically, attempted or completed suicides result in some cases. 

Fortunately, Jim used his cell phone to text HOME to 741741 to reach us, the Crisis Text Line.

The Line has trained over 100,000 volunteers worldwide over its 12-year history. We support people through 24/7 text messaging and online chat; on average, the Line handles over 3,000 conversations every day.

Jim was my sole conversation that morning, spanning two hours. Virtually begging to know what to do, he said he might contact each of his TikTok friends individually to warn them of the impending photos and urge them to block the sender. That would be a long road, though, and he only had a few hours until the deadline.

Luckily, I scouted the Web and found him some excellent sources that told Jim what steps he could take, plus expert tips on what not to do, such as: Never Pay a Dime. They will only demand more.

After I provided Jim with a toolbox of online resources, Jim's gratitude was palpable. "You're a lifesaver," he texted me. "More helpful than all the other hotlines I tried to put together, which only gave me empty platitudes. You gave me information. Thank you! Thank you!"

People such as Jim make volunteering for the Text Line especially meaningful for me and remind me why I took this volunteer job: To help those in serious trouble or who just need someone, anyone, to listen closely.

In the several weeks I've been a CTL volunteer, I've had dialogues with an elementary school girl who was suicidal due to being bullied; a young man who'd spent all night awake, getting high on cocaine, and was now face-to-face with the certainty that he was an addict; and a middle-aged man, wandering disoriented through the streets of his town, unable to find his house, and begging me to send an ambulance him (he had a computer tablet but no cell phone). We did.

Please watch this short, brand new video about what we volunteers at the Text Line do every day: https://youtu.be/E7rwpUngSf0

Would you join me by making a generous financial donation to support this organization's critical work? Or by contributing any amount you can afford?   

Thank you so much. 

All the best,

Bob