Revenge porn soars in Europe's coronavirus lockdown as student fights back

[webfact]

Revenge porn soars in Europe's coronavirus lockdown as student fights back

By Sophire Davies

 

A woman uses her mobile phone at the Lisi Lake in Tbilisi, Georgia, July 4, 2017. REUTERS/David Mdzinarishvili

 

BARCELONA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Revenge porn is surging across Europe under coronavirus lockdowns, with a doubling of cases reported in Britain on Tuesday, while a student campaigner in France has spent hours getting girls' naked photos removed from the internet.

 

Women's rights activists said they have witnessed a rise in online posts of intimate images of women and girls, usually by abusive partners or ex-partners who are stuck at home in front of a screen, with their lives upended by the new coronavirus.

 

"During lockdown and as the world moves online ... women and girls are exposed to higher risks," said Johanna Nelles, executive secretary of the Istanbul Convention, a European treaty to prevent violence against women.

 

"Domestic violence is on the rise and many perpetrators also use new technologies to assert their power over their victim," she said adding that the trend - as well as the fear, shame and anxiety felt by victims - was likely to outlast the pandemic.

 

Digital sex abuse has become a common feature of domestic abuse, as intimate partners threaten to share sexually explicit images without victims' consent, human rights groups say, although many countries do not officially collect such data.

 

Britain's state-funded Revenge Porn Helpline said on Tuesday it opened some 250 cases in April - a record number and double that of the previous April, despite only offering an email service during a nationwide lockdown that began on March 23.

 

CHILDREN

With schools shut, more children are spending time online where they risk being groomed and blackmailed over private photos of themselves.

 

"The perpetrators are at home more - and online more - looking for more victims," said Carmela del Moral, head of children's policies at Save the Children Spain.

 

"Increasingly children's digital life is as important as their physical life ... we need to educate children more in the use of technology so that they understand what sending a photo implicates."

 

Online platforms are needed so that children can report abuses more easily, as they are often uncomfortable using the phone, said Moral.

 

"In Spain, you can't report this type of crime via the internet," she said. "Often children and adolescents can't go themselves to the police station to report a crime – and this is even more of a problem during confinement."

 

SHAME

Shanley Clemot Maclaren, a French student, has spent hours tracking and reporting revenge porn after she noticed a surge in photos and videos of naked girls on social media, tagged with their names and the city where they live to identify them.

 

She estimates that at least 500 so-called "fisha" accounts - from the French verb afficher, meaning to shame - have emerged in France, since tight restrictions were introduced to combat the coronavirus in March.

 

Working together with a lawyer and about 20 friends, Clemot Maclaren has succeeded in getting more than 200 accounts deleted by reporting them to the social networks involved, the police and the interior ministry. Revenge porn is an offence in France.

 

After starting an online awareness campaign last month called #stopfisha to find victims and help them report abuse, she receives distressed messages from teens on a daily basis.

 

Online abuse can have serious consequences, often making victims feel suicidal, or getting beaten up by their brothers when they see the explicit content, the 21-year-old said.

 

"Once you get that label of a slut, it's over," she said, adding that the students would likely be harassed when they returned to school.

 

(Reporting by Sophie Davies; Editing by Katy Migiro. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers the lives of people around the world who struggle to live freely or fairly. Visit http://news.trust.org)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-05-06

 

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[Crazy Alex]

Look people, it's horrible if someone takes photos and/or video and makes it public. But if in this day and age, you let someone take photos and/or video of you in compromising positions, you are quite simply a fool unless you yourself have complete control of the digital files in question.

[TommyBlue]

Another tax payer funded organisation 'peddling' their rubbish to get more funding. Young girls will never stop doing stupid things like this, and some blokes will always share their pictures with others.  But yes, lets give this organisation more money to stop the problem otherwise we are the problem.  10 years later = hey why are we paying $millions to some organisation that has not solved the problem at all so lets cut their funding.   Sexist!! Racist!! Supporting exploitation of women !!! Bla Bla Bla And we need more money to solve the problem. Rinse Repeat.   

 

I was once told the truth about 'social workers' by an ex social worker one day. She said that in all her years she did very little if anything to solve the problems. She reckoned social workers just made things worse, because it gave support (and money) to people who should be supporting themselves.  To prove her point she said there has never been a reduction in social workers anywhere in the country. They only ever stayed the same or increased in numbers. Obviously if they did what they were supposed to do (solve social problems), then over time they should reduce in numbers - or move to a new more 'needy' area - but they never do.  Social workers are another rubbish western scam. Go to the temple and do some work and they will feed you. Your future is up to you. No free rides here lazy person.  Stop drinking and drugs. Get a job.

 

[AlexRich]

A huge mistake to take photos of yourself in flagrante delicto ... unless of course you are Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian, in which case they can be career enhancing! 

[ezzra]

I have nothing to worry about than no one ever will published naked pictures mainly showing a balding and pudgy elderly man... 

[Salerno]

Never say never, there's a fetish out there for everyone 

[BritManToo]

1 hour ago, Crazy Alex said:

Look people, it's horrible if someone takes photos and/or video and makes it public. But if in this day and age, you let someone take photos and/or video of you in compromising positions, you are quite simply a fool unless you yourself have complete control of the digital files in question.

I agree,

If you don't want naked pictures of yourself published, or spread around, don't let anyone take them.

[Tug]

Hey back in the day you were lucky to get a National Geographic with some native lady’s lol nowadays it’s all over plenty of it out there without exposing the chaste ones don’t be a cad guys treat the lady’s rite even if you feel it wasent returned

Edited May 5, 2020 by Tug

[Chomper Higgot]

3 hours ago, Crazy Alex said:

Look people, it's horrible if someone takes photos and/or video and makes it public. But if in this day and age, you let someone take photos and/or video of you in compromising positions, you are quite simply a fool unless you yourself have complete control of the digital files in question.

Alex, technology has shrunk the size of digital cameras / video cameras.

 

The people being filmed/photographed may have no idea they are being recorded.

 

Let’s focus, pun intended, on dealing with the abusers rather than blaming their victims.

 

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by Chomper Higgot

[Chomper Higgot]

2 hours ago, BritManToo said:

I agree,

If you don't want naked pictures of yourself published, or spread around, don't let anyone take them.

Again, somebody else who believes the victim is aware they have been photographed/recorded.

[Crazy Alex]

1 minute ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Alex, technology has shrunk the size of digital cameras / video cameras.

 

The people being filmed/photographed may have no idea they are being recorded.

 

Let’s focus, pun intended, on dealing with the abusers rather than blaming their victims.

 

 

Your point is well-taken. We absolutely should focus on the offenders and make the warning to people who do this a side note. And you're right, some don't even know it's being done. Throw the book at the offenders.

[BritManToo]

4 minutes ago, Crazy Alex said:

Your point is well-taken. We absolutely should focus on the offenders and make the warning to people who do this a side note. And you're right, some don't even know it's being done. Throw the book at the offenders.

All the naked pictures I have of girls, they took the photos themselves and sent to me.

Hard to convince me ladies doing split beaver poses with a smile on their face don't know a photo is being taken.

 

Hard to convince me they'rs 'chaste' either.

Edited May 6, 2020 by BritManToo

[Logosone]

Well, it's certainly a relief that in these times of virus pandemic with economic ruin, businesses going bankrupt, people losing jobs, thousands dying, the important issues are addressed, 19 year old feminists getting social media accounts deleted.

 

Quote

"Once you get that label of a slut, it's over," she said

 

She knows this for sure of course.

[car720]

4 hours ago, Crazy Alex said:

Look people, it's horrible if someone takes photos and/or video and makes it public. But if in this day and age, you let someone take photos and/or video of you in compromising positions, you are quite simply a fool unless you yourself have complete control of the digital files in question.

Common sense 101.

[car720]

3 hours ago, TommyBlue said:

Another tax payer funded organisation 'peddling' their rubbish to get more funding. Young girls will never stop doing stupid things like this, and some blokes will always share their pictures with others.  But yes, lets give this organisation more money to stop the problem otherwise we are the problem.  10 years later = hey why are we paying $millions to some organisation that has not solved the problem at all so lets cut their funding.   Sexist!! Racist!! Supporting exploitation of women !!! Bla Bla Bla And we need more money to solve the problem. Rinse Repeat.   

 

I was once told the truth about 'social workers' by an ex social worker one day. She said that in all her years she did very little if anything to solve the problems. She reckoned social workers just made things worse, because it gave support (and money) to people who should be supporting themselves.  To prove her point she said there has never been a reduction in social workers anywhere in the country. They only ever stayed the same or increased in numbers. Obviously if they did what they were supposed to do (solve social problems), then over time they should reduce in numbers - or move to a new more 'needy' area - but they never do.  Social workers are another rubbish western scam. Go to the temple and do some work and they will feed you. Your future is up to you. No free rides here lazy person.  Stop drinking and drugs. Get a job.

 

Just about everyone in the world needs a crutch, apart from you and me and a few others who are crutchless.  

[Purdey]

Do men really see a naked woman and think she is a slut? Most men usually just think she looks fit and move to the next photo, surely?

[Dazinoz]

My girlfriend was a victim of revenge porn.........someone had it in for me.????

[Bluespunk]

The usual victim blamers out in force already.

[Mick501]

1 hour ago, Chomper Higgot said:

Alex, technology has shrunk the size of digital cameras / video cameras.

 

The people being filmed/photographed may have no idea they are being recorded.

 

Let’s focus, pun intended, on dealing with the abusers rather than blaming their victims.

 

 

Yep, this needs to be dealt with as a more serious crime than it is currently seen.   It can be incredibly traumatic for victims and perhaps should be viewed in the same category of objective seriousness as sexual assaults.

[Mac98]

4 hours ago, ezzra said:

I have nothing to worry about than no one ever will published naked pictures mainly showing a balding and pudgy elderly man... 

My playful landlady, unknowingly on my part, shot a revealing picture of me relaxing in the bath after a massage by her. I first saw it on her timeline. My 77-year-old junior partner was well above the suds. It already had 24 likes and 3 gasps of horror. I was fearful of a visit by law enforcement. I also apologized to some more sensitive ladies I knew who shared her posts. Most said it was no big deal, which I did not find comforting.

[Grusa]

There is a simple answer, and here in LOS we have the infrastructure to implement and enforce.

 

Make naturism 100% compulsory.

 

No blackmail or profit if everyone is naked anyway.

[Matzzon]

4 hours ago, ezzra said:

I have nothing to worry about than no one ever will published naked pictures mainly showing a balding and pudgy elderly man... 

I actually think this goes a little bit deeper and are more important than you as one person will not be having your naked photos spread over the Internet.

[Andy from Kent]

9 minutes ago, Mac98 said:

My playful landlady, unknowingly on my part, shot a revealing picture of me relaxing in the bath after a massage by her. I first saw it on her timeline. My 77-year-old junior partner was well above the suds. It already had 24 likes and 3 gasps of horror. I was fearful of a visit by law enforcement. I also apologized to some more sensitive ladies I knew who shared her posts. Most said it was no big deal, which I did not find comforting.

 

Sorry mate.

Did you mean a seven year old or seventy seven year old jr. partner?

[Lacessit]

5 hours ago, ezzra said:

I have nothing to worry about than no one ever will published naked pictures mainly showing a balding and pudgy elderly man... 

You'd be surprised at what weird tastes in porn some people have. The range is quite astounding, some of it stomach-turning.

[Logosone]

56 minutes ago, Mick501 said:

Yep, this needs to be dealt with as a more serious crime than it is currently seen.   It can be incredibly traumatic for victims and perhaps should be viewed in the same category of objective seriousness as sexual assaults.

The last thing we need is to spend valuable lawmaker time during a pandemic and millions of dollars, pounds and euro on trying to outlaw boom-boom pictures from women who decided to be photographed during fornication.

 

To say a photo like that is just as serious as actual sexual assault is the most stupid statement I've seen on here for quite some time.

[shy coconut]

2 hours ago, car720 said:

Common sense 101.

Elderly woman hater agrees with this post.????

[BritManToo]

9 minutes ago, Logosone said:

The last thing we need is to spend valuable lawmaker time during a pandemic and millions of dollars, pounds and euro on trying to outlaw boom-boom pictures from women who decided to be photographed during fornication.

 

To say a photo like that is just as serious as actual sexual assault is the most stupid statement I've seen on here for quite some time.

There's no lack of white knights wanting to protect women from every foolish thing they ever thought or did.

Obviously they don't feel women are as strong, smart and independent as feminism would like us to believe.

[BritManToo]

57 minutes ago, Andy from Kent said:

 

Sorry mate.

Did you mean a seven year old or seventy seven year old jr. partner?

I think he means his penis.

[Chomper Higgot]

25 minutes ago, BritManToo said:

There's no lack of white knights wanting to protect women from every foolish thing they ever thought or did.

Obviously they don't feel women are as strong, smart and independent as feminism would like us to believe.

There’s no lack of obfuscation, victim blaming an defense of the abusers.

[Chomper Higgot]

I don’t think anywhere near enough is being done by the social media platforms through which these images are spread.

 

Why for example are reported images left on display until reviewed? Why not removed a reported image until reviewed?

 

Why isn’t the same technology that is used to find ‘suggested friends’ or to search for images also used to track down and remove reported images that have been reposted?

 

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the like earn vast sums of money from their users, they need only invest a tiny fraction to

make their platforms safer for all users.

 

 

Edited May 6, 2020 by Chomper Higgot