🛡️ Parental controls and family safety · 💬 Social apps and messaging
Take It Down
By National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Visit Take It Down
Desk research from the maker's own pages. Not yet tried by us. Checked 2026-10-24.
Take It Down is a free service from NCMEC that helps young people stop nude, partly nude or sexual images or videos of themselves, taken before they turned 18, from spreading online. The teen or adult picks the file on their own device; the site makes a digital fingerprint (a hash) without uploading the picture. Participating platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, Snap, YouTube, OnlyFans and Pornhub, use that list to find and remove matching copies on public or unencrypted parts of their services.
Our take: Every parent of a teen should know this exists and tell their kids about it; it is one step alongside a CyberTipline report, not a guarantee.
Checked in a browser
A browser check on 2026-10-25: what loads, the ads and trackers we saw, and what a child meets first. Not a hands-on test.
| Child safety: 4 out of 5 | No ads or chat; the page links out to NCMEC, StopNCII and social media sites, and the subject (removing sexual images of minors) is serious but handled in plain, careful language. |
|---|---|
| Data: 3 out of 5 | Adobe analytics services (demdex, omtrdc, everesttech) and Google Analytics loaded before consent; the only Google ad host was stats.g.doubleclick.net, used by Google Analytics, and a YouTube video is embedded via youtube-nocookie.com. No ad exchanges. |
| Ease: 4 out of 5 | Clear headings ('Who is Take It Down for?', 'How does it work?') and a language picker; written for teens and adults. |
| Cost honesty: 5 out of 5 | Free; no prices or donate prompts were seen. |
What we found
- 12 third-party sites contacted; no ad exchanges, 3 Adobe tracking services, Google Analytics
- 20 cookies set before consent, 1 from a third-party domain (demdex.net, Adobe)
- 0 ad frames; 7 outbound link sites (missingkids.org, stopncii.org, and social media)
- Page is offered in 40+ languages
From the test: A free, ad-free service from NCMEC for teens who need an image taken down; the site uses some Adobe and Google analytics but shows no ads.
| Ages it suits | anyone pictured when under 18, including adults now |
|---|---|
| What its terms say about age | For anyone who has explicit images or videos of themselves taken when they were under 18, from any country. No account or personal details are needed. Images of people taken at 18 or older go to StopNCII instead. (terms) |
| Price | Free. Free (Oct 2026). |
| Works on | Web |
| Account | No account needed |
| Ads | None |
| In-app purchases | None |
| The AI in it | No AI; it uses hash matching of exact copies. |
What's good
- Free and anonymous
- The image never leaves the device
- Works worldwide
- Major social apps take part
Watch for
- Only platforms that joined will scan
- Does not work on encrypted chats
- Matches copies of the file, so edited versions may slip through
- Use the original device; never download or forward images to submit them
Data and privacy
NCMEC says it does not knowingly collect identifying information; it receives the hash and the file name (so it advises not putting names in file names) and uses cookies. Hashes are shared with participating platforms. Read the privacy policy.
Does it work?
The maker's own description only; no independent study of how much content it removes was found.
In the Big Index
- Take It Down
- The maker in the who's who: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC)
Alternatives to Take It Down
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Amazon Kids Tablets (and Fire Kids tablets)
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A reasonable first tablet if you want Amazon's controls plus real Android apps; families who want a tightly closed device may prefer a device without the Play Store.
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Amazon Kids+ and Parent Dashboard
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A good-value bundle for families already on Amazon devices with kids 3-12; skip it if your child mostly uses an iPad or a phone.
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Apple Messages and FaceTime (Communication Safety)
Apple · ages any age with a parent-made child account; teens 13-17
Worth turning on for any child with an iPhone or iPad; pair it with contact limits for younger kids.
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Apple Screen Time
Apple · ages any age under 18
The first stop for any family whose child uses an iPhone or iPad; it does nothing on Android or Windows.
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Apple Watch For Your Kids
Apple · ages kids who don't have their own iPhone; no set age
Good for iPhone families who want a phone alternative with strong contact controls; cheaper kids' watches exist if you only need calls and location.
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Aura Parental Controls
Aura · ages kids and teens
Makes sense for families who already want Aura's identity protection; those who only need screen time limits can use free built-in tools.
Where these facts come from
- https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/
- https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/faq/
- https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/privacy-policy/
- https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/participants/
Prices, terms and features change. Nobody paid to be listed, nothing here is an affiliate link, and Peabody never rates itself. Where we and the maker disagree, the maker's own pages are the ones to trust.