Meta announced a new platform to stop intimate images of youngsters being posted online on its Twitter account on 27th Feb 2023. This is in partnership with NCMEC (National Center for Missing and Exploited Children) to develop an online platform named Take It Down of which Instagram and Facebook are founding members. This step comes after the success of StopNCII (Stop Non-Consensual Intimate Images Online) which had a similar goal.
The need for a new platform stems from some loopholes that existed in the StopNCII. This included the need for a user to upload the data that has to be removed. But this was before Hash was created which was then added to StopNCII. The blog provides an idea on what hash is. “Hashing turns images or videos into a coded form that can no longer be viewed, producing hashes that are secure digital fingerprints.“ Therefore now there is no requirement for a user to upload but to only submit a hash instead of an image or video.
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We worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to design a new platform that finds and removes young people’s intimate images online.https://t.co/SW1ng2NYn0
— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) February 27, 2023
This hash is created by the affected user himself and uploaded to the Take It Down website. This shared numerical code is then used by the partner companies’ system to find out the image and remove it completely from any source. Moreover, the request can be made from people of all ages even though the images being removed are taken before the age of 18. This includes:
- People under the age of 18 who think their content has been or will be posted on online platform.
- Adults with images being taken before they turned 18.
- Parents or guardians on behalf of the youngster.
Meta has been quite active in removing the content that may lead to exploitation of the young. This is quite visible with its new Instagram feature that helps avoid interaction between teens and suspicious adults. This is done by hiding teen Instagram id from suspicious adults while they are scrolling through the list of people that have liked a post or are in someone’s account followers and following. It has also stepped up its notification prompt to a teen if a suspicious account comments on their content or uses it in their Reels Remix.
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Also, it informed about a list of 30 such tools that will help step up the security of a teen and his/her family across all its apps. The platform is also providing resources for teenagers about the “potential harms of taking intimate images” and other resources for “parents so they can talk to their teens about how to be safe online”.
Source: Meta Newsroom
