Over 200,000 sign petition calling for heavier punishment of ‘revenge porn’

Aiken County Public Schools and local law enforcement are urging students to be aware of cyberbullying and to know the consequences of taking part in any form of bullying and/or making threats online. The school district’s bullying policy defines harassment, intimidation or bullying as a gesture, electronic communication or a written, verbal, physical or sexual act reasonably perceived to have the effect of either of the following: Harming a student physically or emotionally or damaging a student’s property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of personal harm or property damage. Insulting or demeaning a student or group of students in such a manner as to cause substantial disruption in or substantial interference with the orderly operation of the school. Captain Maryann Burgess, with the Aiken Department of Public Safety, said the online threats within Aiken County schools has been a common issue but emphasized its a common issue nationwide….

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…

Getty Images Taking a photo for commercial purposes is a different thing - as it is if you’ve purchased a ticket to a concert have to abide by their terms - however legally, nobody can claim copyright to their own image. “So long as you are on public property you can publish the photo,” says Stacks law firm. “But if you publish a photo taken by someone else you run into copyright issues. Get permission to use it.” However, lawyer Geoff Baldwin says if someone has a voyeuristic purpose, which can generally be thought of as capturing images of private activities for your own or someone else’s sexual gratification, it is likely to be an offence under the Crimes Act 1900 [NSW]. The distribution of ‘intimate images’ - like revenge porn - can also be an offence under the same Act. Under Australian law, it is also an offence in…

At a Fourth of July party in 2016, a stranger approached Hannah Jennaway, then 21, with an unsettling question: “Are you the girl in the Snapchats I just got?” Jennaway’s stomach sank. “No,” she lied. She knew what the girl was referring to and hated imagining anyone watching it — especially someone she didn’t know. As the night went on, more people texted her asking about the Snapchat videos they’d received of two people having sex, including a girl who looked just like her. Earlier that day, Jennaway went cliff jumping at Ennis Lake with a group of friends. Worn out after a day in the sun, she returned to Bozeman with two friends to clean up before going to a party to celebrate the Fourth of July. While Jennaway’s friend Dilan Koelzer, then 20, showered, Jennaway and her other friend went into Koelzer’s bedroom, pushed a couch against the…

SEOUL: A man in his 30s has been found guilty of posting nude photos of his former girlfriend on social media in an apparent “revenge porn” scheme. Busan District Court on Sunday handed down a jail term of 1 1/2 years to the man for spreading private sexual images without consent. The court said it took into consideration how the suspect had no previous criminal records and had already paid compensation to the victim. In December last year, the man allegedly created a fake social media profile impersonating his ex-girlfriend and posted nude photos of her with obscene comments. The man told investigators he decided to post the nude photos, as his former girlfriend had been avoiding contact with him in an attempt to break up. The fake profile was taken down afterward. However, the photos had already been circulated on other networks and websites. The victim has reportedly been…

  A South Korean nude model was arrested for taking a photo of a male colleague during an art class — and posting the snap online as revenge, according to new reports. The woman, only identified by her last name Ahn, admitted to police that she secretly took the photo and shared it on feminist site Womad on May 1, according to the Korea Herald. Both she and the male victim were modeling for fine arts students at Hongik University in Seoul and met for the first time at the school. She took the picture and posted it in retaliation for an argument the two had had over a rest area used by the nude models. The victim, who secretly worked part-time as a male model, was mortified that the photo went viral, and was seen far and wide — including by some of his relatives, according to the South…

A Northern Irish woman wants the company to search its entire network An alleged victim of revenge porn is mounting a high court attempt in Belfast to compel Facebook to search for explicit photographs of her. The tech and publishing company has already deleted “highly sexualised” images of the Northern Irish woman, which are said to have been sent to 25 users. Her lawyers now want those accounts to be checked to establish whether the pictures were forwarded. The woman, who cannot be identified, claims that her former partner used Facebook’s private messaging service to share the photographs after they broke up. Although she has ended her action against her ex-boyfriend, she is continuing to sue Facebook for breach of privacy and alleged failures in its system. She has said that her independence and dignity were undermined…

SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A man in his 30s has been found guilty of posting nude photos of his former girlfriend on social media in an apparent “revenge porn” scheme. Busan District Court on Sunday (Oct 8) handed down a jail term of 1½ years to the man for spreading private sexual images without consent. The court said it took into consideration how the suspect had no previous criminal records and had already paid alimony to the victim. In December last year, the man allegedly created a fake social media profile impersonating his former girlfriend and posted nude photos of her with obscene comments. The man told investigators he decided to post the nude photos, as his former girlfriend had been avoiding contact with him in an attempt to break up. The fake profile was later taken down. However, the photos had already been circulated on other networks…

  The office of the Australian e-safety commissioner has confirmed that a planned pilot that would allow Facebook users to upload their nudes to the social media website to assist with the takedown of those nude photos from Facebook, will likely launch later this year. Late last year the e-safety commissioner announced the pilot where users fill out a form with the commissioner, send the photo via a one-time link provided to them, a Facebook employee reviews the image, hashes it (stores it in a “human-unreadable numerical fingerprint”) and then deletes the original photo. When someone attempts to upload the photo to Facebook after that, it is matched with the hash and blocked. This week Facebook announced it would expand the pilot to the UK, Canada, and the US. The Australian newspaper then reported on Friday that the pilot was “called off” in Australia by the e-safety commissioner “amid fears…

Speaking out anonymously through the youth engagement tool U-Report, almost three-quarters of young people also said social networks, including Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter, are the most common place for online bullying. “Connected classrooms mean school no longer ends once a student leaves class, and, unfortunately, neither does schoolyard bullying”, said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “Improving young people’s education experience means accounting for the environment they encounter online as well as offline.” Via SMS and instant messaging, young people were asked a series of questions about their experiences of online bullying and violence, including who they thought should be trying to end it. Some 32 per cent of those polled believed governments should end cyberbullying, 31 per cent put the onus on young people themselves to stop the harassment and 29 per cent cited internet companies as bearing the chief responsibility. “One of the key messages that we can clearly see from…

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…

  Discord’s somewhat recent policy regarding not safe for work (NSFW) content, which often includes pornographic images or cartoons, has some gaming communities concerned about future sudden changes. Recent controversy sprung up after one popular, partnered Discord server dedicated to Final Fantasy XIV was issued a warning for an NSFW channel and lost its partner status as a result. Server members were reportedly sharing lolicon, a specific type of cartoon subgenre that depicts young girls participating in erotic acts or lewd behavior, and received a warning from Discord administrators. The email, which was uploaded to Reddit by user Eanae, instructed the Final Fantasy XIV server admins to remove the channel, as it violated the company’s terms of service for sharing digitally altered pornography that depicts minors. The server would be deleted otherwise. Eanae said they took action, but Discord refused to give them back their partner status. Partner status helps…

  Mischa Barton sat down with Amanda Knox in a new interview and talked about the moment she realized her ex-boyfriend sold pornographic videos of her online. Last year, The OC alum discovered a man she once dated secretly recorded their sexual interactions and then tried to sell the tapes to companies for $500,000. According to the actress, he took photos and videos of her and she had no idea. The small-screen star went to court and obtained several different restraining orders against him and another man. Reportedly, another man she dated was involved, and the court granted Mischa the right to privacy. The judge stated the two men were legally barred from distributing the images, and if they did, it would be a massive charge, and maybe even jail time. Amanda, who spent four years in an Italian prison for supposedly murdering her roommate in 2007, but was exonerated…

  Britain will tackle “the Wild West elements” on the internet from cyber-bullying to online child exploitation by introducing new laws for social media companies, digital minister Matt Hancock said on 20 May. Launching a consultation on what measures should be used to ensure the safety of those using the internet, Hancock said the government would publish a white paper — a policy document that sets out proposals for future legislation — later this year and aim to bring in new laws “in the next couple of years”. Better regulating social media companies has long been an aim of a government that has struggled to carry out its agenda with Britain’s departure from the European Union taking up much of ministers’ time. “Digital technology is overwhelmingly a force for good across the world and we must always champion innovation and change for the better,” Hancock said in a statement. “At the same…

Blac Chyna and Rob Kardashian are slated to face off next week in their bitter revenge porn drama, RadarOnline.com exclusively learned. Kardashian, 30, posted a series of naked photos and videos of his baby mama to social media on July 5, and after obtaining a temporary restraining order against him, Chyna, 29, hired legal ace Lisa Bloom to fight for her rights and make her baby daddy pay for his crude posts. “Chyna and Rob have a mediation date set for next Tuesday,” an insider spilled to Radar. “She is trying to make him pay for posting those naked pictures and videos of her. She is not going to settle for a couple of thousand dollars either. She wants millions.” PHOTOS: Blac Chyna Claims Ex Rob Kardashian ‘Is Mentally Ill’ Following Shocking Split “Chyna lost serious money after Rob posted those things. And she wants Rob to make sure that…