Intimate-Image Safety Boundaries: TAKE IT DOWN, StopNCII, and the Client Record Line

Before you send anything

Keep proof. Do not create a new copy.

Most intimate-image cases need a safer boundary, not another open checklist. This page names what can stay public and what moves into the client record.

Read this first: education, not legal advice

This guide explains public rights boundaries and removal options in plain English. AboutUs is a content-removal agency, not a law firm, and nothing here creates an attorney-client relationship. For advice about your specific legal rights, talk to a licensed attorney in your state.

We wrote this guide because the official boundaries below are genuinely useful, and most people never hear about them until they are already panicking. Before authorization, the boundary should be visible: what the public path can reach, where it stops, and when AboutUs should move the matter into a client record.

One firm rule, stated up front: avoid anyone who promises certainty. No official boundary and no agency can promise an image comes off the internet everywhere. Any service that sells that certainty is telling you something about itself, not about your case.

The three things people mix up

These names sound alike and get confused constantly. They are three different things, and which one you use depends mostly on one fact: how old you were when the image was taken.

Take It Down is run by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. It is for nude, partially nude, or sexually explicit images of a person who was under 18 when the image was taken. It is the official child-safety boundary for that situation.

StopNCII.org is the adult equivalent. It is for people who were 18 or older both when the image was taken and now. It is run by a UK non-profit, the Revenge Porn Helpline at SWGfL.

The TAKE IT DOWN Act is a federal law, not a public upload tool. Signed in May 2025, it makes nonconsensual intimate imagery, including AI deepfakes, illegal to publish and sets a 48-hour removal obligation for covered platforms after a valid request. It is a separate legal option that can work alongside the official boundaries. We explain it in depth on our TAKE IT DOWN Act page.

StopNCII.org: for adults 18 and over

If you were an adult when the image was taken, StopNCII.org is an official hash option to consider. It is run by the Revenge Porn Helpline at SWGfL, a UK non-profit, and is built for adults who need participating services to review matching uploads.

The important safety idea is device-side hashing: the tool creates a fingerprint of selected images on your device, and the image itself is not uploaded to StopNCII.

Participating services can use that hash to review matching uploads under their own policies.

The same honest limit applies. StopNCII only reaches services that participate. It is not a court order, it cannot force a non-participating site to act, and it is not a guarantee. When your situation fits, it is a practical official boundary before AboutUs work is discussed.

Side by side: which one, and what each one is not

Choose by age at the time the image was taken. Under 18: use Take It Down. 18 or older then and now: use StopNCII. If you are unsure or both could apply, the under-18 rule wins, and you should treat it as a minor matter, covered in the safety block below.

Both options share the same shape and the same honest ceiling. Both keep your image on your device and share only a hash. Both reach only participating services. Neither works inside end-to-end encrypted chats. Neither can force a site that does not participate to remove anything, and neither is a guarantee.

What neither option does: neither removes a genuine news article or editorial page about you, neither de-indexes results from search on its own beyond the participating partnerships, and neither files anything in court. Those are different problems with different paths.

• 01Under 18 when taken: Take It Down (NCMEC).
• 0218 or older when taken and now: StopNCII.org.
• 03Both: device-side hashing, image stays on the device, participating services only.
• 04Neither: works on encrypted chats, forces non-participating sites, or promises complete removal.
• 05The TAKE IT DOWN Act is the law behind the 48-hour platform takedown duty, not a public upload tool.

Your rights under the TAKE IT DOWN Act

Signed into federal law in May 2025, the TAKE IT DOWN Act criminalizes the nonconsensual publication of intimate images, including AI-generated deepfakes, and it created a removal mechanism on top of that. Enforcement is handled by the Federal Trade Commission.

The part that matters for removal: covered platforms must have a process to remove a reported nonconsensual intimate image within 48 hours of a valid request from the victim, and to make reasonable efforts to remove copies. Platform obligations became enforceable in May 2026.

This is a victim-notice right that runs through a covered platform's intimate-image reporting flow. The official hashing options and a covered-service report are not competing options; they work together.

If a covered platform has no clear process, the process is broken, or the platform does not act after a valid request, the FTC's TakeItDown.ftc.gov option is for recording the platform failure. It is not a promise of agency removal for you, and it is not a substitute for the covered-service process. For the legal eligibility details, see our dedicated explainer.

Where AboutUs work belongs (and where it does not)

The official boundary should be checked first because it tells us what already has a clean public owner. AboutUs earns its place when coordination, persistence, or documented handoff changes the shape of the work.

AboutUs work belongs when the public boundary is not enough and the matter needs one accountable client record. The public page names the boundary; the client record contains the written answer.

Where paying does not help: a paid agency cannot make a non-participating platform act faster than the law allows, cannot promise anything the official boundaries cannot, and cannot remove a genuine news article without the publisher's cooperation or a court order. On search, the honest distinction is that de-listing a result from a search engine is a fallback that hides a link, never a substitute for deleting the content at its source. Be skeptical of anyone who blurs those two.

Our model is client-record-first and results-based for eligible matters we accept. The reviewed items, intended outcomes, and refund terms are defined in your written service agreement. We say what we can and cannot reach before you decide anything.

If you want a person to look at your case

If your intimate images are already being shared and you want a human to assess it with you, talk to a real person, not a form. Intimate-image situations are time-sensitive and personal, and you should not be left filling out fields alone.

Use the live chat to reach a person now. They will tell you, plainly, whether an official boundary is the right path or whether the spread is at the point where client-record work makes sense. The first read is no-card and confidential; AboutUs work stays behind a written boundary.