This is how you can remove pictures of yourself from the internet
Once nude pictures have made their way onto the Internet, it is almost impossible to permanently remove them from there. With “Take it Down” there should now be a tool with which minors in particular can have intimate pictures deleted from the Internet.
The number of nude photos sent online is steadily increasing – including among children and young people. According to Survey from 2022 18 percent of Swiss young people aged 16 to 17 have already sent erotic photos or videos of themselves.
For 18 to 19 year olds, the figure is even 25 percent. And the age group of 14 to 15 year olds is also affected. Here, six percent of those surveyed have already sent intimate photos or videos of themselves.
But what if these pictures fall into the wrong hands? Cases of extortion are then no longer uncommon. This is exactly where the private NPO National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) wants to start with its “Take it Down” tool.
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What can the Take it Down tool do?
Children and young people can make a case through the website TakeItDown.NCMEC.org report. Various information is requested in three steps, including age and whether intimate pictures have already landed on the Internet.
In the next step, users can select photos or videos from their device. A hash value is then created for this. NCMEC then adds these values to the internal hash list. The photos or videos should not be transmitted directly to NCMEC, only the respective hash value.
With this, networks like Facebook or Instagram can then find copies of the photos or videos on their platforms, delete them and stop the distribution.
Who is behind the new tool?
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children developed the new tool “Take it Down” together with Meta, among others. According to the Facebook groupthe tool is based on the StopNCII platform developed by Meta, which adults can use to stop the distribution of their intimate images on the Internet.
In addition to Instagram and Facebook, “Take it Down” is also supported by the platforms OnlyFans and Pornhub.
Who can use Take it Down?
According to Meta, “people of all ages” can access the tool to stop the distribution of intimate images or videos on the web. However, it is always about files from children or young people. Therefore, Meta numbers the following user groups:
Young people under the age of 18 who are concerned that their content has been or will be posted online
Parents or trusted adults acting on behalf of a young person
Adults concerned about pictures taken of them before the age of 18
Meta also wants to integrate Take it Down into Facebook and Instagram in the future. This should make it easier for users to access it to report their potentially questionable content.
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