Internet safeguards for children are getting some help from The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children along with some tech companies. There's a free digital tool to help teens remove sexually explicit images or videos from social media.

Smartphones and selfies are a lot of fun, but sometimes some inappropriate photos are sent to a boyfriend or girlfriend, and that photo is shared or posted somewhere without consent. Or worse yet, you've been blackmailed into sharing a nude photo or video. What can you do?

Ed Suk, executive director of The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children New York, wants you to know there is help to get any nude images taken of you when you were under the age of 18 offline using their new "Take It Down' tool, a free digital service through NCMEC.

"It is incredibly embarrassing when those images are out there and out of the control of the teenager, so we want to help get those images down," said Suk. "We used to say, if an image is out there, it is out there forever, but that is not really the case anymore. We do have the ability to work with tech companies and have those images scrubbed from platforms."

Take It Down works by assigning a unique digital fingerprint called a hash value to the image or video. Online platforms can use those hash values to detect these images or videos on their services and remove it.

"It is completely anonymous, the image never leaves the device. It is extraordinarily successful," said Suk.

The Take It Down program receives on average about 2,000 requests a week, amassing 100,000 requests since its launch. There is no guarantee photos and videos will be removed from all social media, but Suk said it is working.

"That is a massive response and I think it is telling in two ways. It shows there are successes to it and it really demonstrates a need. Resources are there. We can help get the images offline. It is not forever and there are people out there who care," said Suk.

There is also a 24-hour tip line to report any suspicious online activity involving children. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children Cyber Tipline is (800) 843-5678 or online at cybertipline.com. Last year it received 32 million tips, the majority for child pornography and sexual abuse of kids found online.'

If there is an explicit image of you from when you were 18 or older, you can get help at stopncii.org.