Meta launches new platform to remove minors’ intimate images online

NEW DELHI: Meta has announced a new platform designed to proactively prevent young people and minors' intimate images from spreading online.

The social network said it financially supported the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in the development of 'Take It Down', a platform that helps adults stop the spread of their intimate images online.

"We've also introduced some new features that make it more difficult for suspicious adults to interact with teens on Instagram," said Antigone Davis, Global Head of Safety at Meta.

'Take It Down' lets young people take back control of their intimate images.

People can go to TakeItDown.NCMEC.org and follow the instructions to submit a case that will proactively search for their intimate images on participating apps.

The platform them assigns a unique hash value a" a numerical code a" to their image or video privately and directly from their own device.

"Once they submit the hash to NCMEC, companies like ours can use those hashes to find any copies of the image, take them down and prevent the content from being posted on our apps in the future," said Meta.

With the launch of Take It Down, people of all ages can stop the spread of their intimate images online, including young people under 18 years old; parents or trusted adults on behalf of a young person and adults who are worried about images taken of them when they were under 18.

On Instagram, the company recently introduced new features to make it even more difficult for suspicious adults to interact with teens.

"Now, these adults will no longer be able to see teen accounts when scrolling through the list of people who have liked a post or when looking at an account's Followers or Following list," said the company.

If a suspicious adult follows a teen account, "we will send that teen a notification prompting them to review and remove the new follower".

The company is also prompting teens to review and restrict their privacy settings.

"We've developed more than 30 tools to support the safety of teens and families across our apps, including supervision tools for parents and age-verification technology that helps teens have age-appropriate experiences online," said Meta.