Meta has decided to invest in a project of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to protect minors and put a stop to child pornography content on the web.
Just send the wrong photo to the wrong person. This is how all the stories of teenagers who send a friend, partner, new match on Tinder a nude or semi-naked shot which then, after a ton of shares, find free space on the web. The goal of Take it Down is to bring the phenomenon back in a fast and simple way. The project, managed by National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and funded in part by Meta Platformsowner of Facebook And Instagramallows users to “stop sharing nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos online.” To do this, it uses markers that identify images on the web.
The free service will be available globally for minors, but it will also be possible to ask to delete old nude photos taken before the age of 18. Among the platforms that have joined the project there are (obviously) Facebook And Instagram of Meta, Yubo, OnlyFans and Pornhubowned by MindGeek. At the moment there are two big absentees: Twitter and TikTok. Not only that, if the image is sent over an encrypted platform like Whatsappcannot be removed.
How Take it Down works
The site allows you to create aimage fingerprint. A number sequence, called hashes, capable of marking the content, especially useful for identifying any copies of the image. For example, if someone modifies the original photo, another very similar hash is created, it will only change by one or two digits, and will therefore be easy to find on the internet. The site also works with AI-generated images and deepfakes.
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“Take It Down is made specifically for those who are afraid of having an image of themselves on the web,” he said Gavin Portnoy, NCMEC spokesperson. According to Portnoy, Take It Down could also solve another problem. Kids are often ashamed to make a complaint and involve the police, for this very reason the site can become a faster and safer way to protect yourself by maintaining your anonymity. “For a teenager who doesn’t want that level of involvement, they just want to know it’s been removed, that’s a big deal for them,” she said.
How the images of minors are protected
For Antigone Davisglobal safety manager of Meta, Take It Down can become a tool not only to protect minors, but also to put a stop to the child pornography material circulating on the platforms. NCMEC has seen an increase in complaints of online child exploitation, it has received 29.3 million of reports in 2021, with an increase of 35% compared to 2020. According to the NSPCC, the child welfare charity, a maximum of 30,925 crimes for possession and sharing of images and videos of minors, among the 2021 and 2022.