Facebook is asking for your naked photos - to stop revenge porn

Facebook is asking British users to send their naked photos and sexually explicit pictures to the social network - to help stop revenge porn.
Facebook wants your nude photos.Facebook wants your nude photos.
Facebook wants your nude photos.

The idea is that if users are worried about nude photos of themselves being shared online by someone else, they can be blocked before they reach the web by Facebook.

Similar technology is used to try to stop the spread of child abuse images.

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Facebook has been testing the system in Australia and is now extending the trial to the UK, the USA and Canada.

The social network has said that if there's an image you're worried about, you should contact Facebook's UK partner in the project, the Revenge Porn Helpline.

Staff will then get in touch with Facebook and you'll get sent a link to upload the photo.

The pictures will only be seen by "a very small group of about five specially trained reviewers" who will give the photo a unique digital fingerprint - something called hashing.

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The code will then be stored on a database and if anyone else tries to upload the same photo, the code will be recognised and it'll be blocked before it appears on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger.

The original photos will not be stored.

But the system only works if you actually have the image you're worried about.

If, for example, your ex took a load of photos on their phone and you don't have them, the idea doesn't help.