WASHINGTON, DC (April 10, 2025) – The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) urges the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the TAKE IT DOWN Act, a bill that criminalizes the act of uploading image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) and mandates that platforms remove this material within 48 hours. Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is a broad term that includes a wide range of harmful experiences involving the weaponization of sexually explicit or sexualized images or videos.
The U.S. House Energy and Commerce advanced the TAKE IT DOWN Act this week. The U.S. Senate passed TAKE IT DOWN unanimously in February. This landmark legislation has been endorsed by more than 120 organizations, law enforcement, and tech industry leaders including Snap and Roblox.
“Both children and adults have become the targets of nonconsensual sexually explicit content, especially with the rapid rise of AI-generated deepfakes. Today, it is nearly impossible to have these images removed from websites and platforms. The TAKE IT DOWN Act would compel platforms to remove them quickly, helping end the very real impact that victims experience,” said Marcel van der Watt, President, National Center on Sexual Exploitation.
“TAKE IT DOWN will rightfully treat uploading image-based sexual abuse to websites as a federal crime and ensure that anyone who has suffered this abuse has a real solution. We urge the U.S. House to prioritize its swift passage,” he said.
A 2024 Thorn report revealed that “roughly 1 in 10 minors report that they know of cases where their friends and classmates have created synthetic non-consensual intimate images (or ‘deepfake nudes’) of other kids using generative AI tools.” For more information about Image-Based Sexual Abuse, see here.
About National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE)
Founded in 1962, the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) is the leading national non-profit organization exposing the links between all forms of sexual exploitation such as child sexual abuse, prostitution, sex trafficking and the public health harms of pornography.
