Offer of help for children and teenagers"Take It Down" removes nude images of minors from the web

It's a horror show: Your own naked pictures appear on the internet and are publicly accessible. Those affected feel exposed and are faced with the problem of having their images deleted from online platforms as quickly as possible. A new tool from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children helps to prevent this from happening in the first place. With just a few clicks, you can prevent your own images from being uploaded to services such as Instagram and TikTok. Take It Down" is now also available in German.

"Take It Down" removes nude images of minors from the web

The non-consensual dissemination of intimate images is unfortunately an everyday occurrence on the internet. There are many reasons why this can happen. A disappointed ex-partner is in possession of intimate images and publishes them out of revenge. Private images have been stolen from a hacked cloud storage and distributed. Or the images were blackmailed as part of sextortion (blackmail with intimate images) and then published on the web.

Once the images or videos are online, it is particularly important for those affected that they disappear again quickly.  All major platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and TikTok offer the option of reporting such images. However, this process can take a long time. And reporting does not always prevent the images from being uploaded again. Those affected are often constantly busy searching for their images and having them deleted.

It would therefore be best if this situation did not arise in the first place. And that is exactly what "Take It Down" promises. There you can have your own photos given a digital fingerprint (called a hash value). This fingerprint is passed on to the participating platforms and the recording can no longer be uploaded there by anyone else.

What platforms are working with "Take It Down"?

So far, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Yubo, OnlyFans, PornHub, Threads, Redgifs and Clips4Sale work with the hash value filter from "Take It Down" (as of 03.11.2023). The current list of platforms is available here.

"Take It Down" prevents the upload of intimate images

The "Take It Down" service aims to protect against the unwanted dissemination of intimate images. To use the service, users should not wait until the pictures have appeared on the Internet. Rather, young people can take the precaution of reporting intimate images or videos to "Take It Down" in encrypted form.

Is it safe to use "Take It Down"?

"Take It Down" is run by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the USA. NCMEC has been committed to the fight against sexual violence against children for years and works closely with law enforcement agencies worldwide.

No images or videos are uploaded to use the service. A so-called hash value is created for each recording. The image or video file is processed using an individual numerical code. This creates a kind of digital fingerprint of the file, which can be filtered by search algorithms. Only the hash values are transmitted to the service and added to a list. The hash value is created locally on the user's own device. The images or videos therefore do not leave your own device. It is not possible to create an image or video from the hash value. When using "Take It Down", all files therefore remain on your own device and are not shared with anyone.

How can I use "Take It Down"?

The Take It Down" website is available in German and 24 other languages (e.g. Turkish, Kurdish, Arabic) . Simply click on the "Start" button on the homepage and follow the instructions.

"Take It Down" is intended for the following groups of people:

  1. Minors who wish to report their recordings to "Take It Down".
  2. Parents or other trusted adults who support minors in using the service.
  3. Adults who wish to report recordings of themselves as minors.

Help offers for adults

Adults can also defend themselves if their intimate images are shared online without consent. The "Stop Non-Consensual Intimate Image Sharing" service works in a similar way to "Take It Down". It is aimed exclusively at people of legal age. The service prevents images from being uploaded to the following services: Facebook, Instagram, Threads, TikTok, Bumble, Reddit, OnlyFans and PornHub (as at: 03.11.2023). The current list of platforms is available here.

Further assistance & Hotlines

Have pictures of you been published? Or are you afraid that this could happen? You can find help anonymously and free of charge at these counseling centers:

Anyone who comes across illegal images on the Internet can report them anonymously here in order to have them removed from the Internet:

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