Revenge Porn

We Need to Study the Effects of Revenge Porn on Mental Health

Illustration: Chelsea Beck (Gizmodo) Leah Juliett was 14 when nude photos of her were circulated throughout her school without her consent. She had sent the photos privately to a boy, who then shared them with fellow students. “It really was kind of an emotional numbness. I completely shut down,” Juliett told Gizmodo. For years after the crime occurred, she experienced panic attacks, depression, night terrors, anxiety, and other PTSD symptoms. In college, when the trauma “became unbearable,” she suffered from alcohol abuse and thoughts of suicide. “You do feel trauma after revenge porn,” she said. “You do feel shame, you do feel post-traumatic stress, in many cases. At least I did. Those night terrors, that anxiety, walking through the halls of your high school feeling as if everyone had seen you naked. It is truly a lasting form of sexual exploitation, so I would definitely see some similar emotional responses…

Frat at Central Florida Allegedly Had ‘Revenge Porn’ Facebook Group

An Arizona woman is suing her ex-boyfriend and members of his fraternity for allegedly sharing explicit videos of her in a private Facebook group without her consent. In a lawsuit filed in United States District Court, Katherine Novak is suing Brandon Simpson, her former boyfriend. In the complaint, which was obtained by PEOPLE, Novak alleges Simpson shared intimate photos and videos of her on a private Facebook group other fraternity members could access. Novak says she did not consent for the intimate photos to be posted in the group. The complaint alleges that Novak “would routinely engage in consensual, private sexual relations with defendant Brandon Simpson, most often in defendant’s apartment. Defendant Simpson captured video recordings of at least one of these private sexual activities using digital recording devices.” According to the complaint, “the Plaintiff’s face and nude body were readily identifiable in the aforementioned video recordings.” Novak alleges that…

FTC SENDS REFUNDS TO VICTIMS OF MYEX.COM

The FTC is mailing refunds to MyEx.com victims that filed complaints with law enforcement through the Consumer Sentinel Network. The FTC and the state of Nevada charged that the website, MyEx.com, was dedicated solely to revenge porn and solicited intimate pictures and videos of victims, together with their personal information such as their name, address, employer, and social media account information. The site urged visitors to “Add Your Ex,” and to “Submit Pics and Stories of Your Ex.” According to the complaint, the defendants charged victims fees from $499 to $2,800 to remove their images and information from the site. CONSUMER INFORMATION What to do if you’re the target of revenge porn RELATED NEWS FTC, Nevada Obtain Order Permanently Shutting down Revenge Porn Site MyEx FTC and Nevada Seek to Halt Revenge Porn Site

Watch a Heatmap Visualize the Spread of Revenge Porn Around the World

For years, Anon-IB, the internet’s most notorious epicenter of revenge porn, thrived as users posted nude photos and videos of women without their consent. They published these images under the assumption that they were anonymous—their usernames were “Anonymous” followed by a string of letters. A new heatmap visualization using IP adresses of Anon-IB users highlights that people who share revenge porn on the forum weren’t as anonymous as they may have thought. In March, cybercrime teams from the Dutch police seized the Anon-IB forum as part of an investigation. Einar Otto Stangvik, a Norwegian security analyst, turned the IP address data—strings of numbers that reveal the location of a computer connected to the internet—that he collected before the seizure, into a heat map of where people were posting from. Stangvik shared much of the data, which spans from February 2015 to January 2018, with The Daily Beast in January. Across…

Australia takes on revenge porn

The Australian government wants to help victims of revenge porn. A new online reporting portal from the country’s eSafety Commissioner’s office aims to assist people who have suffered from the spread of intimate, nude or sexual images distributed without consent. Revenge porn has affected one in five Australians between the ages of 16 to 49, according to a recent study from researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne. By contrast, one out of 25 Americans have been victims of similar abuse, a report from the New York-based Data & Society Research Institute suggests. In Australia, similar to in the United States, only certain states and territories have laws to protect citizens against the non-consensual sharing of photos and videos. This new portal intends to support and guide individuals through options such as reporting images to the police, flagging social media sites, or informing the eSafety Commissioner’s office. Individuals can put in…

After pleading guilty to posting ‘revenge porn,’ P.A. man faces $30,500 court order

Saskatchewan Provincial Court in Prince Albert. Herald File Photo A judge ordered a local man to pay $30,500 to his ex-girlfriend, as restitution for posting nude photos of her on the internet. The 25-year-old man, who cannot be named for fear of identifying the victim, pleaded guilty to publishing intimate images without consent. He appeared in Prince Albert’s provincial courthouse on Monday, where Judge Matsalla also sentenced him to two years probation. “The effect on the complainant is profound,” Matsalla said. “In this case the harm will be ongoing and may continue for a long period of time.” He said he was convinced that the photos were posted out of “revenge.” The man and the victim were both 18 years old, and dating, when he took 10 intimate photos of her. They broke up months later, and he posted the photos online. They soon spread to a number of websites….

Her nude photos leaked online. Now she’s fighting back

fighting back What is revenge porn? It’s “non-consensual pornography that is distributed online to shame, exploit or extort its victims.” Basically, it’s sharing other’s nude photos online for your own selfish reasons. It’s an epidemic that ruins lives; however, it is often overlooked by the general populous as well as the government. But that’s all about to change. Leah Juliett, A student, is campaigning to end revenge porn after she fell victim to the cruel practice - which is illegal in some states - when she was just 14 years old. Leah Juliett, now 20, was devastated when a boy she was communicating with shared naked pictures of her with their entire school and online. The traumatic experience left the New York-based poet, actor and activist feeling alone, vulnerable and too scared to report it. She sent 4 revealing photos to a male classmate who was unsatisfied with the photos…

Forget being a victim. What to do when revenge porn strikes

The Internet is a terrible place sometimes, but thankfully there are now organizations that can help people who become victims. When illicit photos of Anisha Vora began showing up online, she didn’t know what to do. She contacted Facebook, Twitter and other companies hoping they’d do the right thing and take the photos down. But soon, there were too many places for her to deal with on her own. What happened to Vora happens to all sorts of people. Students, college graduates and professionals. People have lost their jobs because photos were published online without their consent. Most of the victims are women, though not all. As the threat of revenge porn has grown, companies, organizations and even lawyers have sprung up to help victims. Figure out the size and scope of the problem The moment your photos begin circulating online, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. You’ve been violated, and…

Attorney Mark Keaton Who Posted Revenge Porn Gets Disbarred

Attorney Mark Keaton, a nightmare human being, was disbarred from practicing law in Indiana last week because he systematically harassed, threatened, stalked, and distributed naked pictures of his ex-girlfriend over the course of six long years. Keaton’s disbarment papers tell a very grim story that serve as a good reminder: ladies, get a restraining order the moment you start to feel threatened! In 2005, Keaton, then married and 41, started an affair with his teenage daughter’s 19-year old roommate, “JD.” When they broke up in 2008, Keaton started calling JD obsessively and leaving voicemails, which sounded like this: “Call me the fuck back! I don’t know who the fuck you think you are. But I’ll tell you what, you better fucking call me fucking back now! You fuck with me one more time and this time you’ll really fucking pay for it! And you need to think about it! Now…