Revenge Porn or Sexual Image Exploitation
Technology and the internet can be used by offenders to embarrass, humiliate, and harm victims. Sexual image exploitation, commonly known as “revenge porn”, is when intimate sexual images are shared without the victim’s permission.
Sexual image exploitation can have a devastating impact on a victim’s emotional and mental health.
What is Sexual Image Exploitation?
Sexual image exploitation refers to the distribution of sexually graphic images or videos of individuals without their consent. In other words, it is when someone posts online private, nude, or sexual pictures or videos of you without your permission.
Often, the person who shares the images is an ex-partner, but the offender can also be a stranger who hacked your phone, laptop, or cloud storage account.
This crime is also known as nonconsensual sharing of sexual images.
This includes:
- Images that were taken without your knowledge or permission, for example, images taken through hidden cameras.
- Images taken with your permission as part of an intimate relationship that were meant to stay private.
- Images where your face or body has been altered using technology to create pornographic or embarrassing images. These are also called “Deepfakes”.
Offenders often post these images on social media platforms to embarrass and hurt the victim or to damage their reputation. Offenders may also use the images as a way to blackmail victims into continuing the relationship.
What can I do?
Remember, it is a crime to publish or share intimate images without your permission. You can contact the police or the District Attorney’s Office if you want the matter handled through criminal court. If the person sharing the images is a current of former intimate partner or family member, you can go to Family Court to get an Order of Protection against them and to make them stop sharing these images.
Victims of this crime experience a great deal of trauma. More than anything else, they want the images to be taken down immediately.
If you find out that your images have been shared without your permission, immediately tighten your privacy and security settings on your social media accounts. For example, increase your privacy on Facebook and make your passwords secure.
On the Cyber Rights Initiative website, you can find a detailed Online Removal Guide to remove images on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Tumblr, Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft.
You can also tell the Federal Trade Commission if a company posts your image without your consent and won’t take it down.
You can find links to low cost or pro bono (free volunteer) Attorneys on the Cyber Rights Initiative website.
If you are a victim of sexual image exploitation, please call the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative Crisis Helpline at 844-878-2274 for support and advice.