Sextortion / Take It Down
Free, step-by-step use of NCMEC’s Take It Down service.
When to use this
If a nude or sexual image of someone under 18 is being threatened, shared, or posted online. It works for real photos and AI-generated fakes.
What Take It Down does
NCMEC’s Take It Down creates a digital fingerprint (“hash”) of the image on the user’s device. The hash is shared with participating platforms (Meta, TikTok, Snap, Pornhub, OnlyFans, and more). When those platforms see a matching image, they remove it.
Critical: your kid keeps the image on their phone during the hash step
Take It Down needs the image to create the hash. The hash is what’s uploaded — not the image. After hashing, you can delete.
Steps
- Go to takeitdown.ncmec.org on the kid’s device.
- Choose “I have a nude image or video of me when I was under 18.”
- Select the image(s).
- The service computes a hash locally — no image is uploaded.
- Once complete, delete the original image from the kid’s device.
- Wait for participating platforms to detect and remove matches.
What Take It Down doesn’t do
- Doesn’t work on platforms that don’t participate (e.g., some encrypted chats).
- Doesn’t identify or prosecute the person who shared the image.
- Doesn’t replace a police report.
Pair with these
- CyberTipline: report.cybertip.org.
- FBI IC3: ic3.gov.
- Local police report.
- For adults (18+): StopNCII at stopncii.org.
SecureYourKidsDevice.com / Lexeprint Inc. Not legal advice. See our disclaimer.