What is Take it Down, the site to remove photos and videos of child abuse and exploitation

Once a photo is posted online it is hard to go back. Teenagers often ignore this warning and find themselves disarmed when images portraying them in embarrassing circumstances, or without veils, begin to circulate on the Web. Therefore Take it Down was born.

It’s about a platform created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (acronym, Ncmec) to help minors track down and delete sexually explicit or partial nude photos and videos from the Internet. Facebook also contributed to the initiative, financing the initial investment. At the same time, Yubo, the app considered a sort of Tinder for teenagers, MindGeek, a company that owns sites such as PornHub and YouPorn, e Only Fans.

Take it Down, although dedicated mainly to minors, it also allows adults to verify whether there are sexually explicit contents online shared with imprudence (perhaps during adolescence) and possibly remove them.

To start the process just go to the site and click on the button with the inscription in English Get Started or, in Spanish, Comenzar. Access is free to anyone surfing the Internet, regardless of country of origin, as they come clarified in the FAQ section. If the user is a minor, a system is envisaged for creating a fingerprint of the image directly on the platform (a hash, i.e. a code to make it unique) to be recognized and removed.

The procedure (which can also be activated in advance, before appearing online) ensures the maintaining the anonymity of the report and the guarantee that there is no actual loading of the content, which remains on the device.

On the other hand, the photos or videos of which she has been fingerprint generated they are entered into a database with which the tech companies adhering to the project can interact. Which, in this way, are able to eliminate them from their services. Consequently, the more the membership base expands, the more the work carried out thanks to Take it Down becomes incisive and effective.

For an adult, however, the site points to the address of StopNCII.orginitiative promoted in 2021 e backed by Facebook in order to counter the non-consensual sharing of intimate content, better known under the name of revenge porn. In the first year alone, this platform handled requests from 12,000 adults, turning them into active cases.

The defense of minors, however, remains the main objective. The growing number of incidents of online sexual abuse and exploitation of teenagers, recorded by Ncmec and by non-profit associations such as CyberTipline, justify making the problem a priority. In 2020, moreover, Meta has reported the discovery of more than 20 million illicit images sexually charged against children: “Having explicit content on the Internet is traumatic and frightening, especially for young people” – commented Gavin Portnoyvice president and communications manager of Ncmec – For this reason we want to lend a hand and try to change the idea that it is no longer possible to remedy the past, by removing this material posted online”.

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Previously, big techs like Meta or TikTok, though profess zero tolerance against child abusershave been repeatedly object of criticism and government investigations for not having done enough in the face of the increase in the activity of sexual exploiters and predators of children and adolescents in the various apps and social networks. However, the creation of Take it Down (which neither Twitter nor TikTok has joined for now) is a sign that it intends to renew and strengthen the commitment to protect the most defenseless and exposed group of youth.

Since it went online, the site has already received applications for 200 cases. The procedure is operational on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, but not on WhatsAppbecause messages and content sent from a platform that uses encryption systems cannot be removed.