The Marshall Police Department is working with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to help get the word out about their “Take It Down Program.”

Take It Down is a free service that can help you remove or stop the online sharing of nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos taken of you when you were under 18 years old. You can remain anonymous while using the service and you won’t have to send your images or videos to anyone. Take It Down will work on public or unencrypted online platforms that have agreed to participate.

Take It Down is a service provided by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Take It Down is for people who have images or videos of themselves nude, partially nude, or in sexually explicit situations taken when they were under the age of 18 that they believe have been or will be shared online. For example, maybe you sent a picture to someone, but now they’re threatening you or have posted it somewhere. Even if you’re unsure whether the image has been shared but want some help to try to remove it from places it may appear online, this service is for you.

If there is an explicit image of you from when you were 18 or older, you can get help at stopncii.org.

Take It Down works by assigning a unique digital fingerprint, called a hash value, to nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images or videos of people under the age of 18. Online platforms can use hash values to detect these images or videos on their services and remove this content. This all happens without the image or video ever leaving your device or anyone viewing it. Only the hash value will be provided to NCMEC.

For more information about this service and other resources, check out the Resources and Support page.