Teenagers who see nude photos of themselves circulating online now have the option to take those images offline. A new program developed by the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) allows photos to be removed from certain social media. The tool, Take It Down, was funded in part by Meta Platforms, Facebook’s parent company.
Anyone can submit images anonymously via the online platform and all photos containing minors will be removed. Take It Down creates a kind of digital fingerprint that ends up in a database. Tech giants that have joined the project promise to ensure that the images no longer circulate online.
At the moment it concerns Facebook and Instagram from Meta and the platforms OnlyFans, Pornhub and Yubo that have joined Take It Down. However, if an image can be seen on another platform, such as Twitter or TikTok, or was sent via WhatsApp, for example, it will not be removed. Even if an image has been edited or, for example, has different dimensions, it will not be recognized by the same digital fingerprint. But images that are visually similar – such as the same photo with and without an Instagram filter – are recognized.
“Take It Down is specifically made for people who know there is a nude photo online or have strong suspicions about what photo is going around,” said Gavin Portnoy, a spokesperson for NCMEC. “If you have shared it with someone you date, for example, or if someone blackmails you with a certain image.”
A spokesman leaves to the British newspaper The Guardian know that Take It Down aims to address child abuse and exploitation on social media. “If you have explicit images online, it can be very traumatizing, especially for young people,” says Portnoy about the new tool.
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