Just 12 people were convicted of sharing revenge porn in the West Midlands last year. It became a criminal offense to disclose private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress in April 2015, but numbers of prosecutions and convictions resulting from the new law are still low. The founder of a helpline for victims, which is receiving thousands of calls each year, said poor responses from police, as well as victims fearing reprisals or people finding out, may be behind the low number of convictions nationally. In the West Midlands police force area, there were 13 prosecutions for revenge porn in 2017, leading to 12 convictions. This was down from 24 prosecutions and 22 convictions in 2016. Of those prosecuted in 2017, five were men aged 25 or over, three were men aged 21 to 24, one was a man aged 18 to 20, one was a…
victims
Bill Moak, Consumer Watch Published 7:00 a.m. CT June 30, 2021 CLOSE Facebook is testing out a new program to combat revenge porn, but there’s a catch. USA TODAY REVENGE PORN(Photo: WUSA) Last year, a court in Washington state awarded $8.9 million to a woman whose former online romantic partner allegedly began harassing her after their relationship ended. Courtney Allen and her husband sued Arizona resident Todd Zonis after Allen broke off the online dalliance. The Allens accused Zonis of posting intimate photos and videos, sending them to friends and family and initiating a campaign of harassment. After a jury sided with the Allens and awarded the record-setting verdict, Zonis denied the charges and appealed. The jury award was the largest to date involving what’s been called “revenge porn” or nonconsensual pornography, the act of sending photos, videos and intimate information out over the internet after a relationship…
Victims of revenge porn are being asked to share their stories with North Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, as part of a campaign to close a ‘legal loophole’ in order to help protect their identities. Julia Mulligan has today launched an anonymous survey to gather evidence and bolster her efforts to see Image Based Sexual Abuse, or ‘Revenge Porn’, reclassified from a communications offence to a sexual offence. One in three allegations since 2015 are believed to have been withdrawn, according to a Freedom of Information requests noted by the NYPCC. It is believed this is often due to the lack of anonymity under the current classification of victim’s identities, and the distress this causes. Mrs Mulligan said: “The law on revenge porn is fundamentally flawed. It needs to change and this survey will provide me with more evidence in my campaign to ensure the legal loophole is closed…
One of the first known victims of revenge porn, Lena Chen, has had most of her adult life overshadowed by abuse both online and in person. Intimate photographs posted on the internet by her ex-partner sparked five years of harassment, eventually forcing her to leave the country and change her name. Now the artist has set up an initiative to bring together women who have been victims of violence and trauma. It was on Christmas Eve 2007, while she was studying at Harvard University, that Chen became aware her ex-boyfriend had posted intimate photos of her. “I felt very numb but I had to function. I was at home for the Christmas holidays so I had to act normal because I did not want anyone to find out anything was wrong,” Chen tells The Independent. “When I eventually had a moment to myself, I cried for the first time and broke down. On the flight to…
Ohio lawmakers are working on legislation that would protect victims of so-called revenge porn; the unauthorized posting of intimate photos on the internet. Victims say the objective is to humiliate victims and in some cases, to profit from the posting of photos that were taken in private. Katelyn Bowden of Youngstown says her explicit photos turned up on-line when a thief stole her ex-boyfriend’s cell phone. Police even knew who took her phone. “I was told the only thing that was illegal was the theft of my cellphone. The only crime committed was cellphone theft. My body didn’t matter. The cellphone had more rights than me,” Bowden said. Bowden along with Belinda Berry founded BADASS or Battling Against Demeaning and Abusive Selfie-Sharing. It’s a grassroots organization aimed at helping victims of revenge porn. Berry says she became a victim of revenge porn when she had taken photos with a…
The Dutch police recently located and shut down the servers of Anon-IB, a message board notorious for revenge porn, i.e. nude photos that have been obtained and reshared without the owner’s consent. In 2011 nude photos of Emma Holten, a Danish feminist activist, were hacked from her email account and posted online, including on Anon-IB. She later received international attention for how she chose to handle the situation, by publishing a nude photoshoot of herself, in an effort to emphasize the difference between consensual and non-consensual sharing of personal data. “It’s both terrifyingly interesting and interestingly terrifying” According to VICE, TNW Conference is quite the event In wake of Anon-IB’s closure, TNW talked to Holten about what this means for victims of revenge porn and how shutting down Anon-IB was a milestone for fighting it. What Anon-IB represented Before it was shut down, Anon-IB was a…
At Primus Private School, we interviewed students to find out how they are being cyber bullied and how they felt about it Dubai: Shaikh Zayed believed that it is important to respect everyone equally. Throughout his life, Shaikh Zayed treated people with utmost respect regardless of status or gender. Students should also treat each other with respect. This will surely decrease the rate of cyber bullying. Anyone who is cyber bullied should first tell an adult who will help him or her solve the issue. A reason for bullying is that students do not respect each other and others’ culture. Having interviewed some students, we have come to the conclusion that cyber bullying is a problem quite widespread. Have you ever been cyber bullied? How did you react? Yes, I have been cyber bullied. I use the Facebook and Instagram social networking sites. I had posted a photo in…
Children and young people under 25 who are victims of cyberbullying are more than twice as likely to self-harm and enact suicidal behavior, according to a new study. The research also suggests that it is not just the victims of cyberbullying that are more vulnerable to suicidal behaviours, but the perpetrators themselves are at higher risk of experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviours as well. Cyberbullying is using electronic communication to bully another, for instance by sending intimidating, threatening or unpleasant messages using social media. The systematic review study, led by Professor Ann John at Swansea University Medical School in collaboration with researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham looked at more than 150,000 children and young people across 30 countries, over a 21-year period. Their findings, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, highlighted the significant impact that cyberbullying involvement (as bullies and victims) can have on…
Children and young people under 25 who are victims of cyberbullying are more than twice as likely to self-harm and exhibit suicidal behavior, according to a new U.K. study. But new research also suggests that it is not just the victims of cyberbullying that are more vulnerable to suicidal behaviors. Bullies also are at higher risk of experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Cyberbullying is using electronic communication to bully someone else, for instance by sending intimidating, threatening or unpleasant messages using social media, researchers explain. The systematic review study, led by Professor Ann John at Swansea University Medical School in collaboration with researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Birmingham, looked at more than 150,000 children and young people across 30 countries over a 21-year period. The findings, published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, highlighted the significant impact that cyberbullying — both as bullies and victims —…
Nurses are struggling with cyberbullying by patients and families, a new study has found. Massey University PhD graduate Dr Natalia D’Souza wrote her thesis on workplace cyberbullying and found that nurses are not only bullied by other staff, but also by patients and their families. Dr D’Souza says patient care responsibilities make it difficult for nurses to block communication if they are being bullied by electronic channels. “I was told about one case where a nurse was being bullied by a patient’s mother, and she used her son to gain access. “She would call to ask for help for her son, but then start abusing the nurse, so the nurse was hesitant to block the calls in case it was a genuine emergency.” Many nurses were also concerned about how being cyberbullied on social media would affect their professional reputation. “Sometimes their personal contact details have been posted online,…