Regret making adult content? Your rights to get it taken down

By Yair Cohen, Solicitor specialising in internet law. Updated 5 October 2026.

This guide is part of our porn lawyers section.

If you agreed to make adult content, or sent intimate images to someone, and now regret it, this article is for you. You may be lying awake wondering who has already seen it, or checking your phone in case someone you know has found it. You may feel ashamed, even though wanting your private life back is nothing to be ashamed of. Regret on its own is not usually enough to get content taken down. But in our experience there is almost always something more: what you were told at the time, who owns the content, who is sharing it now, and whether it was ever meant to be public. Someone may have convinced you that agreeing once means you have no way out. Please do not give up on the strength of that. Most of the time our letter alone gets the content removed swiftly, with court kept in reserve. Getting it down is often what finally lets people stop looking over their shoulder.

Can I get content taken down just because I regret it?

Usually there is more to it than regret, and that is what we look for.

People regret adult content for all kinds of reasons, and we have heard most of them. Some of our clients were students when they made it, short of money or simply curious. Some got carried away, talked into it by friends who made it sound like harmless fun. Some felt rebellious at the time and wanted to prove something, to themselves or to someone else. Some made it at a hard point in their lives, or were promised that a film would stay on one paid site, or that images would never leave a relationship. And some were entirely willing at the time, even keen, and only began to regret it a few years later, once their lives had moved on. None of this is anything to be embarrassed about, and none of it surprises us. We will not judge you or lecture you. Our job is to help you get your life back.

Regret does not always arrive straight away. For some people it begins when the content starts to cast a shadow over a new relationship, and they dread the moment a partner finds out. Some of the mothers we have helped only came to us when they were pregnant or had just given birth, when the worry became much heavier, and some developed post-traumatic stress or depression. Others lived with it quietly for years, until their children were old enough to understand, and the thought of a child, or a child's friends, finding them online became too much to bear. We have even acted for women whose husbands came across them on an adult site by accident, never having known about that part of their life before they met. Whatever has brought you here, and however long it has been, it is not too late to act.

What matters is how the content was made and how it is being used now. A private image shared by an ex is a very different case from a studio film you signed a form for, and both are different again from a video you made and uploaded yourself. The sections below take each in turn, because the route that works best depends on which one you are dealing with.

Intimate images you only ever shared privately

If someone you sent intimate images to has shared them, or is threatening to, the law protects you. You trusted that person, and finding out they have broken that trust can be devastating. Under section 66B of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, it is a crime to share an intimate image of you that you have not agreed to, or to threaten to do so.

Platforms now need to act fast. Where any of your images were shared without consent, the law gives a platform reached from the UK just 48 hours to remove them once properly reported, under section 10(3A) of the Online Safety Act 2023. Our guide to getting sexual images and videos of you taken down explains how we use that deadline.

We also write to the person who has the images. In many cases that is all it takes, and you no longer have to wait in dread for the next message. The letter asks them to delete the images, to sign a binding promise never to use them, and, where it fits, to pay you compensation. If you fear someone is about to post your images, a judge can be asked to forbid it before it happens. Under section 12 of the Human Rights Act 1998, the court will only stop publication before a full trial if it is satisfied you are likely to win. That is why we build the application around the evidence from the start. Our guide to privacy injunctions explains more.

If you were under 18 when an image was taken, tell us straight away. Whatever you agreed to at the time, the Protection of Children Act 1978 treats it as indecent imagery of a child, and the Internet Watch Foundation works to get such images taken down.

Images from a modelling shoot

If you took part in a photo shoot years ago and the images are now online, you may have more options than you think. It can be a horrible shock to find pictures you had half forgotten, years later, tied to the life you have built since. Sometimes the shoot included images you never agreed could be published. Sometimes images that appeared once, in print or on a small site, are now being republished across the internet. And sometimes images were taken without your knowledge while you were changing, which is a different matter altogether, dealt with in our guide on being secretly filmed.

The sites showing the images are usually the first place we look. Most images are uploaded by users, and many sites hold no licence to show them at all. A legal letter usually gets them taken down, and some sites will tell us who uploaded them, so that we can stop that person posting them again.

If the photographer or agency that took the pictures no longer exists, the rights may now belong to the Crown. A dissolved company's assets go to the Crown, under section 1012 of the Companies Act 2006. Buying them back from the Government Legal Department's Bona Vacantia division is sometimes possible, and once they are yours you can enforce them against anyone publishing the images.

Films you appeared in for a producer

Signing a release form does not mean you have no say. Producers often claim a signature ends the matter, and some of our clients believed that for years. If you have been carrying that belief, it is worth hearing a second opinion.

A release form is a contract, and it can be challenged where it was signed under pressure, in a rush, or on the strength of a promise that turned out to be untrue. Our guide on whether a release form signed by an adult film performer is valid explains how. Even where the form holds up, data protection law gives recordings of your sex life special status under article 9 of the UK GDPR. The producer needs a lawful basis to keep using it. And if their basis is your consent, that consent can be taken back.

If anyone threatens to send footage to your family or friends unless you film again, that is blackmail under section 21 of the Theft Act 1968. You do not have to give in to it, and our guide to sexual blackmail and sextortion explains what to do. If you were pushed into filming in the first place, read our guide to sexual coercion and pornography. And if the films are many years old, our guide on how to remove old adult content you once agreed to sets out the routes that work best.

Videos you made yourself

If you filmed and produced a video yourself, the copyright is usually yours, and that is one of the fastest ways to get it taken down. It can feel unfair that something you chose to make is now being used against you, but owning it puts you in a strong position. Under section 9 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, the producer and principal director of a film are its authors.

A large share of adult sites, and their hosts, are American. A notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act usually gets content removed within days, and sites elsewhere mostly follow the same process. Our guide to using copyright to get videos of you taken down explains how it works.

There is one thing worth knowing. If you published the video yourself, someone who uploads it again is not usually committing the image-sharing offence. That is because of an exemption in section 66C of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 for images already shared in public with consent. That is why copyright and your data protection rights do the heavy lifting here. Where someone re-posts your video with your name, cuts it into clips or adds insulting comments to target you, that is harassment too, under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997.

Regret is common. Being stuck with it is not.

What we do first

We know that by the time most people call us, they have been carrying this on their own for a long time. We start with a letter, then takedown notices, and we go to court only if we have to. The right mix depends on how much content there is, how old it is and where it sits, and we agree a plan with you that fits your budget and how quickly you need results. You do not have to deal with the sites, the uploaders or the search engines yourself. We take that weight off you.

Many people write to the sites themselves first and hear nothing, or only an automated reply. That silence can be crushing when all you want is for the content to disappear. A letter from a solicitor that names the law, the content and the consequences is treated very differently. Where we know who is behind the content, we write to them directly too. Where we do not, our in-house team identifies anonymous internet users using open-source intelligence, and the court can order a platform to reveal who is responsible through a Norwich Pharmacal order.

Alongside the sites, we use the right to erasure under article 17 of the UK GDPR to have Google and other search engines drop results linking your name to the content. This right is not absolute, and no lawyer can guarantee that every last copy will go. Our realistic goal, which we usually reach, is to clear the main sites so that the content becomes hard for anyone to find. For many people, that is what lets them stop searching their own name and get on with their lives.

An American or Canadian site is no barrier, since our US colleagues know many of these platforms from the inside. Our porn lawyers page tells you more.

People we have helped

We have changed names and some details in these stories to protect our clients' privacy.

Arthur, as we will call him, was homeless and at a very low point in his life when a producer offered him a small amount of cash to appear in a film. He had never done anything like it before. He signed a release document, and minutes after the filming ended he phoned the producer and begged him not to publish it. The producer refused. For years he sold the film on a paid website, and clips and previews appeared on other adult sites under degrading titles. By the time Arthur came to us, the film had been on sale for years, and he had lived all that time with a decision he regretted within minutes of making it. The producer had done everything he could to hide who he was, so our first job was to find him. Once we had traced him, we sent him a letter of claim. He accepted liability and agreed to everything we asked. He paid Arthur damages and his legal costs, transferred the copyright in the film to him, and signed a binding agreement to help us get the video taken down for good. The film that had been sold without his say now belonged to Arthur, and the man who had profited from it was bound to help remove it.

James, as we will call him, had filmed a video with his girlfriend years earlier and uploaded it to a single site for a small payment. He thought little more of it. Years later he searched his own name and found the video on several adult sites, cut into clips, with his full name attached. Someone who disliked him had downloaded it and uploaded it again. Anyone who looked him up could now find it. He wrote to the sites himself and got nothing back but automated replies, and he spent many sleepless nights. Because he had filmed the video himself, the copyright was his. That meant we could serve copyright takedown notices on each site, with requests to Google and the sites under his right to erasure as a back-up. James was very happy with the result, which let him keep his name clear online. He could search for himself again without dreading what he would find.

Fiona, as we will call her, contacted us about two years after she first appeared in an adult film. She had been approached through modelling work and told it would be a one-off, and she signed the forms without taking them in. The footage then appeared on several adult sites. She had given the studio her real name, and it kept asking her back. Each time she said no, it threatened to send the footage to her family and friends, so every refusal came with a new threat. She felt trapped, and she did not realise there might be a way out. She wanted every video she had appeared in taken down, and she worried that job applications had failed because someone had recognised her. Her story shows why it is worth coming forward: a threat like the one she faced is the blackmail described above, and the law treats it very seriously. If any of this sounds familiar, you may be less trapped than you feel.

Two sisters were approached on social media at 18 by a photographer who offered them modelling work and a free trip abroad. He photographed them in swimwear on the beach and had them sign a piece of paper that nobody explained. The pictures went online without their agreement. Years later they were living quieter, more private lives, and the images were hurting their relationships. We asked Bing and Google to remove the images from searches of their names. Bing agreed straight away, and once we showed Google that they had never been paid and no longer modelled, Google agreed too. Searching their names no longer brought up the pictures, and they could get on with the private lives they had chosen.

You can read more about our work for people in a similar position to Arthur in the case of Mario Rogers, the porn headmaster.

How soon should you act?

As soon as you can. Content spreads, and every week it stays up it can be copied to more sites. Starting early usually means fewer copies to chase, a lower cost and a faster result.

Some people wait years because they did not know help existed, or because they felt they had only themselves to blame. Others were too frightened of the people involved to report what happened at the time. If that is you, you are not alone. Before you contact us, it helps to note privately the web addresses and dates where you have seen the content, and to keep any messages, forms or threats you still have. Working out which route fits is our job, not yours. Working that out is our job. You can tell us as much or as little as you like at first.

Frequently asked questions

Is regret enough to get a video removed?

Not by itself. What usually decides it is something else, such as a promise that was broken, who holds the rights, or how the video is being used today.

What if I agreed to it and signed a form?

You can still act. A form signed under pressure or on a false promise can be challenged, and even a valid form does not give the producer an open-ended right to use footage of your sex life.

Can I stop someone publishing my images before they do?

Yes, in many cases. Threatening to share an intimate image is a crime, and we can write to the person straight away. Where the risk is serious, we can ask the court for a privacy injunction to stop them publishing.

What if I made the video myself?

Then you are in a strong position, because the rights are usually yours. We send takedown notices to each site and ask search engines to remove the results, with your data protection rights as a back-up.

Will you contact the site, the person who uploaded it, or both?

Usually both, where we can. The site can take the content down quickly, and the person behind it can be asked to sign a binding promise to stop for good. An unknown uploader can often be identified.

How soon should I act?

Today, if you can. The sooner we start, the fewer copies there are to deal with.