Tracy Bennett explains how revenge porn is legal in most states and countries, leaving victims with little recourse for protection.
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June is turning out to be an extraordinary month for cyber civil rights. Not only did Google just announce a new protection policy (following Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, and Periscope last spring), but John Oliver, comedian host of HBO’s Last Week Tonight, gave a scathing monologue Sunday night addressing online attacks and abuse of women. And the big get, representatives Jackie Speier (D-CA) and Gregory Meeks (D-NY) are drafting the Intimate Privacy Protection Act, a federal bill that is rumored to be introduced in the near future. Finally real action is happening to hold cybercriminals accountable instead of brushing the issue off by blaming the victims!
Imagine being at work when your boss whispers to you that he didn’t know how to tell you, but your nude image was anonymously posted on his FaceBook page. He is placing you on leave until an investigation could be completed. You drag yourself home to Google yourself, and are horrified to find that not only has somebody posted your nude image on the social media profiles of several colleagues and family members, but you are also on a revenge porn website, your image tagged with your name, address, social media links, and workplace. Perhaps you took the image for your intimate partner, or it was taken without your knowledge in the locker room of the gym, or maybe your face was digitally placed on another person’s body? Maybe you know your perpertrator or maybe you don’t. Either way you are told by everybody who you think may help that there is nothing you can do to remove the image and you have no legal rights toward the dirtbag who posted it. What if you feel so helpless, humiliated, and scared by this horrifying ordeal that you get deeply depressed or suicidal?
Revenge porn is the act of posting nude or sexually explicit images, video, or private information of another person online, without their consent, in an effort to humiliate, harrass, or extort them. Perpetrators are typically ex-lovers or hackers seeking notoriety, and victims are typically women.
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This very thing has happened to thousands of (mostly) women all over the world, each facing the grim reality of their father, colleagues, or children may view this most intimate moment. Revenge porn is the act of posting nude or sexually explicit images, video, or private information of another person online, without their consent, in an effort to humiliate, harrass, or extort them. Perpetrators are typically ex-lovers or hackers seeking notoriety, and victims are typically women. Consider for a moment the irreversible harm that has resulted from these brutal acts to ruin its victim, including damaged relationships, loss of community, lost jobs, expulsions from school, harassment, stalking, sexual assaults, extortion, anxiety and depression, PTSD, and suicide.
Mind-blowingly, revenge porn is legal in most states and countries, leaving victims with little recourse for protection. In response to increasing pressure by advocacy groups such as the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and Without My Consent, twenty-three states have enacted revenge porn initiatives (with seventeen more in the works), as well as many countries including Israel, France, Germany, Japan, and Brazil. Unfortunately, however, state laws vary in regard to protection. For example, many consider revenge porn acts harassment rather than violation of privacy, while others require that the perpetrator be shown to have “intent to harm or harass” without a reasonable doubt. Or California’s revenge porn law which only applies if the perpetrator was also the photographer. Such discrepant standards often leave victims helpless to protect themselves or seek justice.
Despite recent prosecutions against revenge porn under invasion of privacy, extortion, identify theft, copyright, anti-hacking statutes, and conspiracy, thousands of revenge porn websites still exist. Free speech advocates argue that legislation risks going too far and may violate the First Amendment. In other words, we have a way to go to combat viciously destructive scumbaggery online.
This is the biggest tech industry move to date, particularly considering Google’s tradition of hard line First Amendment issues.
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Google’s announcement on June 15, 2015 reads, “We’ll honor requests from people to remove nude or sexually explicit images shared without their consent from Google Search results. This is a narrow and limited policy, similar to how we treat removal requests for other highly sensitive personal information, such as bank account numbers and signatures, that may surface in our search results.” If the complaint is verified, the content will be reportedly be hidden from public view and the offender’s account will be locked until they agree to remove the content or the offender’s account may be suspended. This is the biggest tech industry move to date, particularly considering Google’s tradition of hard line First Amendment issues.
As a clinical psychologist I see first-hand how devastating online cyberbully, harassment, and revenge porn can be on its victim. Mental health responses are similar to what clinical psychologists see with sexual molest and rape. And to make it even more frightening, it’s not just adults that are having their worlds turned upside down by cruel online attacks. Children and teens are regularly being pummeled with piercing attacks at their vulnerable developing self-identities. Has it really come to people writing up prenuptual agreements to protect themselves against revenge porn? It has…
I’ve been calling for a GetKidsInternetSafe revolution to help to parents teach morality, values, and kindness as well as digital citizenship, encouraging boys and girls to develop a healthy online reputation from the very start. To get loads of free tips and information to prepare for regular cyber issue teaching moments in your family, please join me at GetKidsInternetSafe.
I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetYourKidsInternetSafe.
Onward to More Awesome Parenting,
Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
GetKidsInternetSafe.com
Bravo, John Oliver! (bad language alert)
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Originally published at Get Kids Internet Safe. Reprinted with permission.Photo: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver/YouTube
This also applies to men. If you are thinking of doing something stupid or potentially illegal, don’t record it. I am really glad there were no camera phones when I was in my 20s. Don’t give ANYONE potential ammo to use against you.
Such an important conversation to have. One point I’d like to expand on is this false assumption that one can predict another person’s behavior. People betray even their most cherished relationships including siblings, parents, spouses, and sons/daughters. Psychologists can’t predict behavior even after batteries of tests. Yet people take comfort in a false superiority that victims have it coming because they didn’t know their partner well enough…until it happens to them. Anybody can become a victim. Compassion rather than blame makes the most sense. Doesn’t it?
Indeed, unfortunately, the only way to be safe from this is to not appear in any photos, but I don’t think that anybody really thinks that’s a reasonable response. You can avoid taking pictures of yourself naked, but that wouldn’t stop things like people using special equipment to peak through a peephole.
This is a similar problem to rape. There are things you can do to reduce the likelihood of being raped, but it’s pretty much impossible to completely eliminate the risk without going to crazy lengths to avoid human contact.
So what if someone sent you an unsolicited pic? People didn’t seem to be outraged that Anthony Weiner’s picture got circulated without his consent. In fact Oliver makes fun of it when he refers to Carlos Danger. People feel like he had it coming, but that becomes a slippery slope. Then it becomes OK because someone was cheating. Then it becomes OK because they’ve seen men nude in a men’s locker room so turn about is fair play. We keep moving down that slope.
But leaking sex tapes of guys and penis pics seems to still be okay, right?
I want to point another thing out from an IT perspective. People forget to clear out pictures, etc. from computer equipment, phones, personal media players, etc. when they turn it in. I’ve ignored things I wasn’t supposed to see, but not everyone else will. Even when people bring things to me to repair and it needs to be backed up. I’ll ask them if there’s anything on there that could embarrass me. Sometimes they’ll say that there is. Once a woman even volunteered the information. I give then m the option to back it up themselves. They’ve always declined. I… Read more »
Where does it end? Why is it limited to just nudes? What about an unflattering picture of them with a beer bong, passed out on the toilet, or whatever else? What if it was just at an angle that made them look fat. What if clothes are on, but it is sexually suggestive? What if she is wearing a Confederate flag? Or what if she is in PETA and there is a picture of her eating a burger or the release of racist/sexist e-mails or anything else that exposes a persons hypocrisy? Free Speech is a nice easy bright line.… Read more »
I actually think it’s really lame how our society has grown to feel entitled to take all kinds of pictures of other people and post them for each other’s amusement. From the people passed out at parties to those mean spirited pictures about people in Walmart. I think people should have freedom over their own image and not be fearful that every time they go out in public, some stranger is going to take an unasked picture of them and post it in mean-spiritedness in the name of their own “freedom of speech”. And those who speek out against images… Read more »
“Posting private information, without their consent, in an effort to humiliate or harass them….”
Before the internet, my ex (after breaking up) went ballistic and posted some awful things about me at my grad school…. [luckily my dean intervened and spoke to my ex’s boss about the harassment]…..I felt so violated and embarrassed….it was a relief to hear my classmates sticking up for me and showing support and saying stuff like “he was such a jerk!”….up until that point, I always blamed everything bad in our relationship on myself….
I’m unsure if it happens to men less. I am sure that people aren’t as concerned when it does. I never heard people saying don’t look at Prince Harry’s pictures or you’re participating in his violation type thing. A recent example is a male celebrity (WWE’s Seth Rollins) who’s pretty obviously a victim of revenge porn. His paramour might be too if you think his girlfriend was the one who hacked him. Warning: some pictures NSFW if you click on the link.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2947863/Furious-fianc-e-WWE-star-tweets-explicit-pictures-wrestler-nude-photos-woman-posted-account.html
Where is the outrage? Seems many are taking the position he got what he deserved.
Yeah, this fits in with all the other meme’s about men. You know, they can’t be raped or sexually assaulted. I guess they can’t have their privacy invaded either.
I’ve noticed that too.
I recall a while back where Jezebel had two different responses on this. At one point they proudly proclaimed that they would not down down ill gotten photos of a male celebrity (I think it was a wrestler but not Seth Rollins) but then later they were calling on everyone to take down ill gotten photos of female celebrities during that big wave of leaks that happened earlier this year.
I guess the who it happens to really is more important than the what happened.
@ Danny I think you’re referring to Hulk Hogan’s sex tape. He’s currently using Gawker Media the owner of Jezebel. There was a Pew research study done on on-line harassment a while back. It turns out that men faced more on-line harassment than women, but women faced more “severe” harassment. I put severe in quotes because if something was deemed “sexual”, it was considered severe. Sexual though has it’s own issues with definition. A topless man might not be considered “sexual” by some, but a topless woman is almost always considered sexual. I point that out because even with the… Read more »
Good point John. Yes I think I’m talking about Hulk Hogan. I guess only women’s privacy needs to be respected. I think the problem when trying to get such stats is that the people doing the studies are starting off with a conclusion and trying to make the data fit. I recall a while back some group did a study anticipating that women were sentenced more harshly than men when all other factors are equal. They ended up confirming that men do indeed get sentenced more harshly than women. Oddly enough that study didn’t get a lot of attention in… Read more »
“An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” I’m sorry, maybe I’m old school? But if you take nude photos or make a home video you are asking for trouble. I’m not saying you deserve it, but you are opening a door. I’m not defending revenge porn because I think its one of the most detestable things you could do to a person. In no way am I denying the harm it can do to a person but, if you don’t play with fire, you won’t get burned. How did we, as a society, forget to do the… Read more »
Totally with ya here. Maybe get to know the character and quality of our partners before sex? Crazy ideas here… Earth shattering! Haha
@ Jay – If a person wants to take naked pictures of their body, without the fear of their family seeing it, they should have the freedom to do so without someone using those pictures against them. The issue is not that taking naked pictures is wrong. The issue is that people use these photos against another human being to humiliate and degrade them. Your argument seems very centered around the “she shouldn’t have taken the picture in the first place” line of thinking. Even though you protest that you aren’t blaming the victim, you are when you don’t think… Read more »
People do have the freedom to take naked photos of themselves. Just like I have the freedom to go to a rap concert in a cowboy hat and Confederate flag shirt. The difference is I have the common sense not to do it. Would I have deserved to get my butt kicked in that situation? What about a person’s right to be stupid or obnoxious? As for men bonding over women’s bodies, that no longer has the value it once did. More and more men are walking away from marriage and relationships because they have figured out it is a… Read more »
Please explain to me how taking a naked picture of yourself (and this is said by a girl who has never taken a naked picture of herself) is the same thing as upholding a symbol of inequality that represents the racial, cultural and social injustice and suppression of a group of people? Taking a picture of yourself naked and wearing a confederate flag tee shirt ANYWHERE (not just to a rap concert) are in no way, shape or form the same things. And yes, men still use women’s bodies as a source of bonding. More so now then ever before.… Read more »
“visit strip clubs with their friends and the million of other things men still use and do to bond with each other over the complete objectification of women’s bodies.” Objectification I guess doesn’t always mean the same thing and I think that’;s why many men feel under attack in the present day. The situation will always seem to be painted to place men as the bad guys, unfeeling brutes, sex crazed rapists, etc. I’ve been to strip clubs with my friends and I’ve seen the lonely guys sitting int the corners. It’s usually the guys in the corners not bonding… Read more »
John, if you are going to make a case for the objectification of people in sports, at least be consistent enough to recognize objectification at strip clubs. Objectification may not mean the same things to the same people. But there are universal elements that are commonly accepted among the masses about what objectification is and how it looks. Even if sometimes, ideas about objectification can be subjective and grey. I pretty much know of no human being on earth that would deny objectification of women at strip clubs. I am not interested in painting men as “bad guys”. I want… Read more »
It’s impossible to live without doing (inadvertently or intentionally) stupid and shameful things. It’s equally impossible to please everyone. There are things we enjoy that (while not illegal or harmful) other people don’t approve of. It’s just a part of human nature. Everyone believes certain things and behaves certain ways that they don’t want some family, employers, certain friends, and strangers to know about, and it’s for this reason that we share private information about ourselves selectively, to people we believe we can trust. It’s not a crime to trust people or some grievous error of judgment. People change, relationships… Read more »