If a fake image of you is being shared

Start here, because it saves time

If someone has made a fake image of you and is spreading it, the first instinct is to prove it is fake. That instinct is right, and it will probably not work — so read this before you spend hours on it.

The copy you have has almost certainly been through a phone, a messenger and a social platform. Every one of those strips the file down. SynthCheck will most likely tell you Inconclusive, and that is an honest answer about a file with nothing left in it, not a judgement about you.

Here is the part that matters: the removal routes below do not require you to prove anything. They work on the image itself. You do not have to argue, explain, or prove a negative to use them.

Getting it taken down

Two services do the same job for different ages. Both are free, both are run by non-profits, and both work in a way that should sound familiar if you have read how this site works: the fingerprint is calculated on your own device, and the image is never uploaded.

If you are 18 or over — StopNCII.org

StopNCII.org is operated by SWGfL, the UK charity behind the Revenge Porn Helpline. Your device computes a hash — a one-way fingerprint — and only that number is shared. Participating platforms then block anything matching it.

It explicitly covers synthetic and AI-generated images, not only real photographs. If it depicts you, it qualifies.

Partners include Meta, TikTok, Snap, Reddit, Bumble and others, so one submission reaches many places at once.

If you were under 18 in the image — Take It Down

TakeItDown.NCMEC.org is run by the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and works the same way, with the same major platforms. Use this one if you are under 18 now, or were under 18 when the image was made — including if the image is fabricated.

You do not need a parent's involvement to start, though telling a trusted adult usually makes everything easier.

Also worth knowing

In the United States, the TAKE IT DOWN Act became federal law in May 2025 and platforms have been required to operate notice-and-removal procedures since 19 May 2026, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. It covers fabricated intimate imagery, not only real photographs. If a platform ignores a valid request, that is now a legal failing on their part, not a dead end for you.

If the image involves a child

This section is different from the rest of the page and the difference matters.

Do not download it. Do not forward it. Do not open it in any analysis tool, including this one.

That is not a technicality. In most countries, possessing or transmitting such material is an offence with no exception for good intentions, and "I was checking whether it was AI" is not a defence. It also does not help: knowing how a file was produced changes nothing about what has to happen next.

Report it instead, and let people with legal authority handle the file.

If a child you know is in immediate danger, contact emergency services first. Everything else can wait.

Preserving evidence before you report

Do this before anything gets deleted, but do not let it delay a report.

• Screenshot the page, not just the image — the URL, the account name and the date must be visible.
• Note the exact time and your time zone.
• Keep the original file if you have it, and note where it came from. Original files sometimes still carry metadata that copies do not.
• Do not edit, crop or re-save anything. Every save destroys evidence.
• Write down what happened while it is fresh. Details fade quickly under stress.

For a child sexual abuse image, skip all of this. Report it and keep nothing.

For schools, parents and youth workers

The most useful thing you can teach is not how to spot a fake. Detection is getting harder every year and confident guessing is worse than useless. Two ideas hold up better:

Absence of evidence is not evidence. A clean file proves nothing. Anyone who says "there is no watermark, so it is real" has it exactly backwards. This is worth demonstrating: check a screenshot here, watch it come back Inconclusive, and explain why.

Provenance is a chain, not a property. An image is trustworthy because you can trace where it came from — the source, the publisher, the original post — not because it looks convincing. Reverse image search and finding the original posting beat any detector.

SynthCheck is free, needs no account, and uploads nothing, which is usually enough for it to be approved for classroom use without a procurement process. If your institution needs something in writing about what data it handles, the privacy policy states it plainly: no files are received, so none can be stored or disclosed.

What this tool can honestly do for you

It can help when:

• You have the original file, straight from the camera or the generator, not a copy off social media.
• Someone claims a photo is real and it still carries a generator's own declaration.
• You need a written record of what a file contains, to attach to a report — use Copy report or Download JSON.
• You want to show someone why "it looks real" is not an argument.

It cannot:

• Tell you an image is fake when the file has been stripped, which is most of the time.
• Detect SynthID or any watermark hidden in the pixels rather than the metadata.
• Prove that an image is authentic. Nothing can do that from the file alone.
• Identify who made or shared something.

If you came here hoping for proof and got Inconclusive, you have not failed and neither has the tool. Go straight to the removal routes above. They were built for exactly this situation and they do not need proof.

Working together

If you run a school, a helpline, a newsroom or a support service and something here would be more useful in a different shape — a printable one-pager, a version in another language, an explanation aimed at teenagers rather than adults — write to us. Building it costs nothing and the tool has no commercial model that would get in the way.

Contact: hello@synthcheck.app