Old adult films of you still online years later? How to get them 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 appeared in adult films years ago and they are still online, this article is for you. You may have built a new life since then, and still live with the fear that a colleague, a neighbour or your own family will come across them. You may have been told that because you signed a form and were paid, nothing can be done. Please do not accept that. A release form signed years ago is rarely the end of the story, and in most cases there are several ways to get old content taken down. We usually start with a request for your own data and a letter, and in our experience that does most of the work, and fast. Court is the fallback. We cannot promise to remove every copy, but we can usually make the content very hard to find.

Can old adult content be taken down if I agreed to it at the time?

In many cases, yes. Agreeing to be filmed years ago is not the same as agreeing that the film can follow you around for the rest of your life. You were younger then, and it is natural to want to move on.

Typically our clients agreed to something much narrower than what is happening now. They were told the film would be sold on DVD, or shown only to paying members of one small site. Years later, the same scenes are on free sites, cut into clips, and sometimes promoted as if they were new. Finding them there can feel like losing control of your own past all over again. That gap between what you agreed to and what is happening today is where we usually find our way in.

The question is not whether you consented once. It is whether the people publishing the film today have a lawful right to do it, in the way they are doing it. In many cases they do not, or they cannot prove that they do.

Why signing a form is not the end of it

A release form is a contract, and a contract can be challenged. If you signed it because you were told something untrue, such as that the film would never appear on free sites, you have remedies under section 2 of the Misrepresentation Act 1967. Forms handed over minutes before filming, with no chance to read them or take advice, or in a language you did not read well, also give us something to work with. If that sounds like what happened to you, you are far from alone. Our guide on whether a release form signed by an adult film performer is valid goes into this in more detail.

Your data protection rights are a separate route, and they matter even when the contract holds up. Footage of your sex life is personal data that the law gives extra protection under article 9 of the UK GDPR. Anyone publishing it needs a lawful basis and a specific condition that allows them to use that kind of data.

If the producer relies on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time under article 7(3). Withdrawing does not make what they did in the past unlawful, but it can stop what they do next. Many producers will say they rely on the contract or on their own business interests instead, so we look closely at whether the contract actually covers what they are doing now. Free distribution, new sites and repackaging old scenes as new content are the points where it usually falls short.

You also have a right to private life under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which English courts protect through the claim for misuse of private information. Where you agreed to commercial filming, the court weighs your privacy against everything else, so this route depends on the facts. It is strongest where the film is being used well beyond anything you agreed to.

One point is different from all the others. If you were under 18 when you were filmed, no form and no consent makes the film lawful, because it is an indecent image of a child under the Protection of Children Act 1978. Tell us straight away, and report it to the police and the Internet Watch Foundation. Please do not let embarrassment hold you back, because none of the blame for that film is yours.

How we get old content taken down

We start by asking the producers to show us what they hold about you, and then we write to them. In most cases that is enough, and court never comes into it. You do not have to face the producers yourself, because we deal with them for you.

The first step is a subject access request. Under article 15 of the UK GDPR, you have the right to see the personal data a company holds about you, what it uses it for and who it has passed it to. For you, that means the contracts, the release forms, the identity documents and the messages. In our experience, some production companies cannot produce a signed release form or a valid licence at all, and that undermines their right to keep publishing.

Next, we write to each company. The letter sets out why the continued publication breaches your privacy, your data protection rights and, where it applies, the contract itself. We also make a practical proposal, such as ending the distribution, removing your stage name, or transferring the rights in the films to you. A transfer of your performer's rights has to be in writing and signed, under section 191B of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, so we make sure the paperwork is right. Once the rights are yours, you can have copies taken down wherever they appear.

Most companies respond to a well-prepared letter, because the alternative is a claim they would rather avoid. Where one does not, we can go to court for an order that the publication stops, and for compensation where it fits.

A word of warning about buying your films back. We understand how tempting it is to pay whatever it takes to make this go away. Some producers and sites ask people for large sums to sell them their own videos, and we have seen one release more scenes when a performer tried to negotiate. Please do not pay anything, or agree a price, before you have taken advice. Buying the rights can be the right answer, but only on the right terms, and our guide to using copyright to get videos of you taken down explains how we approach it.

If the company that made the film no longer exists

A dissolved company does not mean nobody owns the films, so there is still somewhere to start. When a company is dissolved, its property, including the rights in its films, passes to the Crown under section 1012 of the Companies Act 2006.

This can help you. Nobody is actively licensing the films any more, and sites that still show them may have no licence they can point to. The rights can sometimes be bought from the Government Legal Department's Bona Vacantia division. It can also make things harder, because there is no company left to give permission for takedowns. We trace what happened to the company and its films before deciding which way to go.

You signed a form years ago. You did not sign away the rest of your life.

Getting copies off other sites and out of search results

Once the main producers have stopped, we deal with the copies on other sites, and then with what still shows up when people search.

Many adult sites, and the companies that host them, are in the United States. There, a takedown notice under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, at 17 U.S.C. section 512, usually gets content removed within days. The notice needs to come from the rights owner or someone acting for them, which is why getting the rights transferred to you matters so much. Where it helps, we work with associates in the United States, because some sites respond faster to a notice from home.

For copies we cannot reach, we ask Google and other search engines to stop showing them. Under article 17 of the UK GDPR, the right to erasure, a search engine can be asked to remove results that link your name to the films, so that they no longer come up when someone searches for you. Google's own process for removing personal sexual content does not usually cover commercial films, so for those we rely on copyright or your data protection rights instead.

You may have read about the new rule that platforms take down intimate images within 48 hours of a report. It is a real step forward, but it is aimed at images shared without consent. Films first released with your consent usually fall outside it, under the exemptions in section 66C of the Sexual Offences Act 2003, so for most old commercial films the routes above are the ones that work.

What we can and cannot promise

We cannot promise that every copy will disappear, and you should be wary of anyone who does. What we aim for, and in most cases achieve, is that the films come down from the major sites and are no longer easy for anyone to find.

Some copies sit on small sites abroad that ignore every notice. But the person you are worried about, whether an employer, a partner or one day your child, is unlikely to dig through obscure sites. They will search your name or visit a popular site, and that is where we concentrate. Getting the films out of those places is what lets you apply for a job, meet someone new or watch your children grow up without dreading what a search might show.

Many of the studios behind older films are American. Lawyers in our US network, a few of whom act for platforms, have got old films taken down without anyone going to court; our porn lawyers page says more.

People we have helped

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

Katarina, as we will call her, came to us years after she had left the industry. As a young woman she had been drawn into the industry by a boyfriend, and she had worked for four production companies, some in the UK and some abroad. English was her second language, and the release forms were rushed through before filming, so she had little idea of what she was signing. By the time she contacted us, she had a baby, a partner and a good job. She and her partner lived with the fear that her employer would find the films, or that one day her child would be bullied because of them. She did not know whether anything could be done.

We went through every agreement she had signed and how each one came to be signed, and we wrote to all four studios challenging the release forms. One studio agreed to remove her videos and to transfer the rights in them to her. Another released her from the agreements and transferred the copyright in its films to her as well. With those rights in her hands, takedown notices could go to other sites that had uploaded her films without a licence, and she now has control over most of the content. The fear that she and her partner had lived with no longer hangs over their family in the same way.

Liam, as we will call him, came to us years after a few weeks in his mid-twenties when he filmed a series of scenes for three producers. He was short of money, hoped it might help an acting career, and was paid a small fee for each scene. He signed the paperwork quickly, with no advice, and was told only paying members would ever see the films. Years later they were on free sites, being promoted as new, and strangers were finding him online. When he asked the sites to take them down, he was asked for a sum far beyond anything he had been paid, and one company released more scenes when he tried to negotiate. He felt there was nowhere left to turn.

We started with subject access requests, and several of the companies could not produce a signed contract, a release form or a licence. We challenged the contracts and set out his privacy and data protection rights, and we opened talks about transferring the rights to him. One company told its partner sites to remove his films. Another stopped distributing them and stopped using his stage name. One company had been dissolved. When we asked one rights holder for a limited licence to send takedown notices ourselves, it said no. For the most resistant sites we used notices through our associates in the United States, and we asked search engines to delist what was left. Most of the videos came down from the major platforms. Some copies remained on third-party sites, but they were no longer easy to find, and for the first time in years Liam could stop looking over his shoulder.

If your situation began with pressure rather than a free choice, that was not your fault, and our guide to sexual coercion and pornography explains what else the law offers. If you made content you now regret more recently, read our guide to regret over adult content you agreed to make.

What to do first

Before you do anything else, make a private list of where the content is. Note each web address, the title used and the date you found it, and take screenshots if you can do so safely. That record is what lets us act quickly on every copy. We know that looking for the films again is hard, so do only what you can face, and we will do the rest.

Gather whatever paperwork you still have, even if it is only a photo of a form or an old message from the producer. Do not worry if you have kept nothing, because we can ask the producers for it. Do not pay anyone who offers to sell you your videos, and try not to argue with producers or sites yourself, because an angry exchange can make things harder. Then talk to us. You do not need to know which of the routes in this article applies to you. Working that out is our job.

Frequently asked questions

Can I get old videos of me removed if I was paid and signed a form?

In many cases, yes. A release form is a contract that can be challenged, and anyone publishing the film must still have a lawful basis for using footage of your sex life. Where the film is now used well beyond what you agreed to, that is usually where we find our way in.

What is a subject access request, and why do you send one?

It is a request, under article 15 of the UK GDPR, for a copy of the personal data a company holds about you. We send one first because it shows us the contracts and forms the producer relies on, and in some cases it shows they have no signed form or licence at all.

What if the company that made the film no longer exists?

When a company is dissolved, its rights in the films pass to the Crown under section 1012 of the Companies Act 2006. The rights can sometimes be bought, and sites showing the films may have no licence they can rely on, so a dissolved company can work in your favour.

Will you be able to remove every copy?

We cannot promise every copy, and nobody can. In most cases we get the films off the major sites and out of search results, which makes them hard to find.

Should I pay a producer or site to buy back my videos?

Not before you have taken advice. Some ask for large sums, and paying without the right paperwork may not give you the rights you think you are buying. Buying the rights can be the right answer, but only on terms that let you take down every copy.

Do I need to own the copyright to get the films taken down?

No. Copyright helps, but your privacy and data protection rights protect your image and your name whoever owns the film. We have had content removed for clients who did not own the copyright, and we work towards transferring the rights to you where we can.