This is a legally...risky strategy. You built a cool thing but unfortunately when you put cool things online they get used for the worst possible purposes.
Yes, I understand there is an unfortunate risk. However, I oppose file scanning, and so do many users, as we've seen with the Apple scandal.
If any content is uploaded that violates the terms of service and is reported, they will be deleted as soon as possible, and that user will almost certainly be permanently banned.
The terms of service cannot shield you from federal law. Not sure if you're in the US or elsewhere but similar laws are prevalent around the world - in the US federal law prohibits the production, advertisement, transportation, distribution, receipt, sale, and possession of child sexual abuse material (CSAM).
This is an issue that could ruin you. The only reason it hasn't already is that the service isn't big enough yet. You undoubtedly already have CSAM on your network and any reasonable person with experience online would expect that, which is an important standard for you to consider. You're starting your own projects online at 17. You will do a lot of cool stuff in your life. Don't let this kill that inertia.
Your site offers private hosting; how do you expect reports to happen? The people sharing the CSAM won't report it; they're the ones that want to abuse your site. They'll happily share the content privately among themselves and you'll never know until the police knock on your door. A reporting-based system only works if the images are public and available in a feed so that you can "crowdsource" your moderation. It doesn't work at all--not even a little bit--when the posts are private. I urge you, strongly, to reconsider your plan here before something bad happens. I don't get the sense that you grasp the seriousness of this concern.
Your terms of service shields you from nothing. It doesn't limit your liability here at all.
I don't believe it is feasible to run an image hosting service with your intended CSAM management plan.
Based on this comment thread, I fully expect your site will soon host CP/CSAM, if it doesn't already. Other image hosting services devote extensive resources to engineering a solution to this problem (one that is more robust than user reporting). I would not expect you will be able to avoid this work, and avoid liability.
Edit: I just noticed you're quite young. Congrats on all the great work. I think this CSAM thing could bring misery your way so I hope you find this comment helpful. Good luck out there.
