How StopNCII works, and when to use it
StopNCII does not remove pages. It stops copies being uploaded in the first place, and your file never leaves your device while it does it. That makes it the one step worth taking early even though nothing visibly changes on the day.
What it actually does
StopNCII.org is a free service run by SWGfL, a UK non-profit. It is not a takedown service and it is not a search tool. It is a blocklist that works on uploads that have not happened yet.
The sequence is:
- You select the image or video on your own device.
- Your browser calculates a fingerprint of it: a string of numbers that describes the content.
- Only that fingerprint is sent. The file itself never leaves your device.
- Participating platforms receive the fingerprint and compare new uploads against it.
- A matching upload gets stopped or reviewed before it goes live.
That third step is the whole point. You are not being asked to hand your private content to another organisation in order to protect it from strangers. This is the same architecture the free check on this site uses, and for the same reason: a promise about how your file is handled is worth much less than a design where the file never moves.
When to use it
Register with StopNCII if any of these are true:
- Your private content has already been posted somewhere, and you expect it to reappear. It usually does.
- Someone has threatened to post it and has not yet. This is one of the few useful things you can do before anything is public.
- You have had copies removed once already and want to reduce how often you have to do it again.
You have to be 18 or over, and you need the original file or a copy of it. If you no longer have the file at all, this route is not available, which is one reason it is worth saving a copy of anything you find even though keeping it feels wrong.
What it does not do
Be clear about the boundary, because it is the source of most disappointment with it.
- It does not remove anything already online. Existing copies need reporting to each site, individually.
- It only covers participating platforms. That includes several of the largest social and adult platforms, and it does not include the long tail of small re-upload sites, which is where a lot of the problem lives.
- Heavy editing can defeat it. A cropped, re-cut or overlaid version may produce a different enough fingerprint to pass.
- It cannot tell you where your content already is. It is a lock on the door, not a search of the building.
How it fits with everything else
The three jobs are separate, and doing only one of them is the usual mistake:
- Find every copy. Match the actual picture and sound, not your name, because renaming is the first thing anyone does. The free check does this.
- Remove each one. Site report forms first, copyright notices where the video is genuinely yours, hosts when a site ignores you. The four routes.
- Stop the next one. StopNCII, plus keeping an eye out so a new copy is found in days rather than months.
Do all three. StopNCII is the cheapest of the three in effort and the easiest to put off, because it produces no visible result on the day you do it. It is also the only one that acts on what has not happened yet.
Where to go
stopncii.org for adults. takeitdown.ncmec.org if you were under 18 when the content was made. We do not run either of them and we get nothing from sending you there.
We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. Rules differ by country and by site. If money, threats or a minor is involved, talk to the police or a lawyer first.