Ending Human Trafficking383: How Survivors Can Finally Get Their Abuse Images Taken Down
Dawn Hawkins joins Dr. Sandie Morgan to explain how an ordinary photo can be turned into fake pornography, and how survivors who were told nothing could be done can now get these images taken down. Chapters (00:00) - Images That Keep Resurfacing a Decade Later (04:15) - What Image-Based Sexual Abuse Covers, From Sextortion to Nudify Apps (10:49) - Dawn's Own Experience With Deepfake Abuse (13:32) - The TAKE IT DOWN Act and How Images Come Down (22:31) - Using AI to Fight What AI Creates (26:28) - Why Adults Need Protection Too (30:02) - What to Do in the First Hour (32:57) - You're Not Alone About Dawn Hawkins Dawn Hawkins is the founder and CEO of Protect Privacy AI, which helps survivors of image-based sexual abuse, including AI-generated deepfakes, find their images online and get them taken down. The company launched its survivor service on May 19, 2026, the day platforms became legally required under the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act to remove nonconsensual intimate images within 48 hours of a valid request. When a platform misses that deadline, the company helps survivors escalate the case to the Federal Trade Commission. Dawn also founded the Digital Identity Foundation, a nonprofit working on research and policy for each person's right to control how their image and identity are used. Before that, she led the National Center on Sexual Exploitation for 14 years as executive director and CEO. There she founded the Coalition to End Sexual Exploitation and launched the Dirty Dozen List. She championed the TAKE IT DOWN Act and has testified before Congress on online harms to children. She has been targeted with deepfake abuse herself. She writes two Substack newsletters, The Consent Layer and Childproofed. Key Points • Name the harm accurately. Image-based sexual abuse covers far more than "revenge porn": leaked images from a former partner, hidden cameras, sextortion threats, and sexually explicit deepfakes. Dawn rejects the word "intimate" for abuse that was filmed, because when the recording shows rape or trafficking, "it's not intimacy that was recorded." • Anyone can be targeted now. Nudifying apps turn a headshot or a church picnic photo into explicit content. Dawn found over a hundred and twenty of these apps in the Apple App Store rated for four-year-olds and nine-year-olds, so parental controls don't keep them from kids. • Platforms now have 48 hours. Under the TAKE IT DOWN Act, creating and distributing nonconsensual sexually explicit images is a federal felony. Platforms must remove reported material within 48 hours and stop the same content from being uploaded again, or face Federal Trade Commission penalties of about $53,000 a day per image. • Know which tool does what. NCMEC's Take It Down, for minors, and StopNCII.org, for adults, hash an image you already have so partner platforms can block it. Neither finds images or asks for removal. A minor who wants content taken down should also report it to NCMEC's CyberTipline. • Survivors no longer have to hunt for their own abuse. Protect Privacy AI scans the open web against a digital identity you build and files takedown requests once you approve them. When platforms ignore a request, it files FTC complaints and escalates to hosts, registrars and advertisers. It also documents everything for any later criminal or civil case, and it's free to try while in beta. • In the first hour, document before you delete. Screenshot the threats and where the image was posted, save it somewhere only you can reach, then request removal. Move fast, because the longer an image stays up, the more views, downloads and shares it gets. • If this happens to someone you love, don't go looking for the images yourself. Many survivors can handle a stranger seeing the material, but not the people closest to them. Listen, don't blame, and ask what would help most. • No one is alone in this. A study across 10 countries found more than 1 in 5 adults have experienced image-based sexual abuse, and a U.S. study found 46% of 18- to 28-year-olds experienced it before turning 18. Over 11 days in late December and early January, Grok generated an estimated three million sexualized images on X. So don't ask a survivor why they sent the picture. Resources • Protect Privacy AI • The Consent Layer (Dawn Hawkins on Substack) • Childproofed (Dawn Hawkins on Substack) • National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) • TAKE IT DOWN Act (S.146, 119th Congress) • Take It Down (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) • StopNCII.org • CyberTipline (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) • Kids Online Safety Act (S.1748, 119th Congress) • Prevalence and Impacts of Image-Based Sexual Abuse Victimization: A Multinational Study (CHI 2025) • Image-Based Sexual Abuse: Characteristics Linked to Different Reasons Why Youth Decide Not to Disclose (Prevention Science) • Grok Floods X with Sexualized Images of Women and Children (Center for Countering Digital Harm) • United States Seizes Domain Names Publishing Nude Digital Forgeries of Famous Women (U.S. Department of Justice) • Global Center for Women and Justice (Vanguard University)
