Help! Someone shared a photo of me without my consent! – Tip Sheet

Cell Phones and Texting
Cyberbullying
Digital Citizenship
Gender Representation
Sexting
Sexual Exploitation
Social Networking
Tip Sheet

Don’t panic! There’s a lot that you can do to fix things.

  1. You can start by asking the person who shared it to take it down or stop sharing it. Kids report that this works more often than not!
  2. Ask the service or platform where it was shared to take it down. If you’re under 18, they may be required by law to take it down, and most also have a policy of taking down any photos that were shared without the subject’s permission. See https://needhelpnow.ca for how to do this on different apps.
  3. Do a reverse image search with a service like TinEye (https://www.tineye.com) or Google (https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/1325808?hl=en) to see if the photo has been posted anywhere else. If it has, repeat step 2.
  4. In Canada, it’s a criminal offence “to share intimate images without the consent of the person in the image.” If that describes what’s happened to you, you may want to talk to a lawyer, report it to CyberTip (https://www.cybertip.ca/app/en/report) or contact the police. The police have the power to force someone to take down and stop spreading the image. Don’t worry! No youth in Canada has ever been charged for sending consensual sexts, so it’s very unlikely that you’ll be charged unless you shared the photo and it included someone other than you who did not give their consent.
  5. Depending on which province you live in, you may have  other legal options. Visit a legal aid clinic or talk to a parent or an adult you trust to learn more. 
  6. If your photo appears in a Google search, you can ask Google to remove it. Go to https://support.google.com/websearch/contact/content_removal_form and select “Content contains nudity or sexual material” or “Content shows a person under 18.”  
  • You’ll then need to give details about the photo and why you want it removed. 
  • Next, you’ll need to include the URLs (web addresses) of the page or pages where the image appears, and the Google search results page where it appears. (There are instructions on how to do that in the form.) 
  • You’ll also need to upload a screenshot. See https://www.take-a-screenshot.org to learn how to do that.
  1. No matter what, talk to somebody! If you can’t talk to your parents, talk to a friend or a helpline like Kids Help Phone (call 1-800-668-6868 or visit https://www.kidshelpphone.ca). Having a photo shared without your consent - even if it’s just an embarrassing one - is really stressful, and you shouldn’t have to deal with it alone.