Revenge porn is an excruciating form of cyberbullying that embarrasses victims by publishing their explicit pictures and videos. Statistics show a majority of victims are women and minorities, while most perpetrators are men. This article answers your questions related to Revenge pornography in detail. We will also guide you on what to do if you fall prey to this digital harassment.
Have you watched the crime show series “The Most Hates Man on the Internet” on Netflix? It’s a story based on Hunter Moore, a controversial guy who created a site encouraging users to publish stolen and hacked images.
The movie is just a reflection of a rot that’s already trending in the blogosphere. Many people have fallen victim to revenge pornography, which is a form of digital harassment where someone leaks nude or explicit photos of a person without their consent.
One day, someone will be the love of your life, and you will share everything you can with them. The next minute, they are angry with you, and all your explicit pictures are trending on the internet without you even knowing!
That’s why it’s vital to deal with revenge porn both by law and by therapy. If you are a victim of revenge pornography, you are not alone. One in twelve American women have been victims.
We compiled this post so you can get help. We’ll let you find all the resources to help you get justice and quick, effective care. We’ll also guide you on what to do if you’re a victim of revenge porn. Let’s dive in!
What is Revenge Porn?
UK legislations define revenge porn as “the act of sharing private sexual materials either in photos or videos or of another person without their consent and to cause distress and embarrassment.”
But, the term revenge porn is not always about revenge. The motive behind this activity goes beyond the motivation of simple revenge. While most perpetrators of non-consensual pornography are usually ex-partners, some people share videos and pictures of other people for control, extortion, or just plain malice.
Sometimes, it’s not just about the photos and the videos but also other personal information about the target victims, including the home address or phone number. The executionist posts this information on the internet as a form of doxing.
And, because social media makes the distribution of photos and videos easy on the internet these days, the practice is more common than ever before. The majority of victims are women aged between 16 and 35. Also, according to the Cyber Rights Initiative (CCRI), a famous non-profit advocacy organization that focuses on this vice, women are always on the end of embarrassing punishment.
The images of naked men on the internet receive little to no negative reactions. The patriarchal world doesn’t seem to care when men do it, but women are the object of constant shaming. People first ask why she would do that instead of asking why the person who posted all her images did it to her.
The victim-blaming tendency is harmful and dangerous and sets a bad precedent. Revenge compromises personal safety and also goes ahead to break the victim into lifelong trauma and depression.
According to law and ethics, revenge porn is a crime and an act of extreme evil. It doesn’t matter whether the videos or the pictures were taken consensually, but they’re distributed illegally on the internet against the person’s.
How Do Online Predators Obtain Revenge Porn Videos?
One may worry about how exactly the online predators obtain the pictures and videos in the first place. A huge bunch of women send explicit pictures of themselves to people, and then the recipients distribute them on the internet without consent.
But, another bunch has nothing to do with the women. Most victims of such scandals report that the pictures getting their way around the internet are from their ex-partners.
Others are advanced hackers who will get to your device without authorization using their technological skills and then expose the personal pictures in them.
Your ex may not be the one distributing your pictures and videos. Sometimes, cybercriminals or hackers try to obtain these pictures and distribute them on the Internet as a blackmail tool.
Hackers are notorious for installing malware on your devices or hacking your office or home personal network. Once they access your smart tech, workplace data, or house appliances, including cameras, baby monitors, and storage devices, they will easily obtain your personal information.
With simple access to a personal computer or a smartphone, someone can easily obtain sensitive films and footage. Do you imagine, for example, if someone has access to your security cameras and baby monitors? Now, you might get the point already, right?
Fortunately, you can bet on personal online security to prevent these hackers from accessing your personal data. Use a reliable VPN like ExtremeVPN to secure your Wi-Fi network or ensure your home internet is safe. ExtremeVPN encrypts your traffic and gives you a new IP address. Hence, you can surf the internet like a ghost safely, securely, and anonymously.
Where Does Revenge Porn Go?
So, if these hackers and malicious online predators are so bent on placing their hands on your pictures and videos, you might want to know where they take them. Does anyone have a demand for revenge porn?
Well, yes! The content is popular on specific websites and social media websites that glorify leakages of private videos. In most cases, the perpetrators share the nudes anonymously, so it’s difficult to know who did it.
Even the big tech owners of social media websites kept a blind eye to these things. In the past, this went on with reckless abandon due to the absence of very permeable laws and regulations that overlooked the content people posted. Some users would take advantage and share obscene pictures of other people on the platform.
So Facebook, Twitter, and other leading social media platforms tightened their grip on this by introducing regulations meant to earn their titles as family-friendly communities. Then, the social media giants decided to ban obscene content from the platform.
But, that did not prevent the perpetrators from going to websites from going to 4Chan and 8Chan, which are some of the darkest corners of the web, according to the New York Times. Websites normally give users full anonymity so that they can publish their revenge.
This practice is common on the deep dark Web and Usenet. The regular internet is just the tip of a huge iceberg; the rest is the dark Web. This network forms a new world of regulated internet where law enforcement sometimes finds it too deep and dark to control.
Revenge Porn Statistics: How Common is Non-consensual Pornography?
Revenge pornography is more popular than you might think. Every day, people are posting pictures of other individuals without their consent, putting them in dire embarrassment and psychological distress.
In 2017, the Cyber Civil Rights Institute advocacy organization researched this vice comprehensively. It was clear that a higher number of people have been victims but chose to stay far from the limelight. The stories that come to light are far fewer than the actual numbers.
The CCRI found that 1 in every 8 social media users in the United States have been victims of revenge porn. Further, 90% of these are women, and 57% claim that their ex-partners posted the material.
Other disturbing studies by the Data and Society Research Institute showed how young women, LGBTQ+, and minorities formed the prime targets of revenge pornography.
For a long time, the perpetrators have had no consequences for their actions. And then, the act of sharing other people’s nude photos without their consent was not an issue in the eyes of the law, and most internet users celebrated it.
However, recently, the United States and several other jurisdictions have adopted legislation that prevents or punishes cyberstalking and cyberbullying. The punishment for online harassment includes heavy fines and jail terms.
Read on for more details about these specific legislations and laws that regulate nonconsensual pornography around the world.
Summary of Revenge Porn Statistics
- 61% of Americans have taken nude pictures or videos and shared them with someone else
- 1 in 8 Americans have been victims of revenge pawn
- 90% of the victims are women
- 68% of victims are aged 18 to 30 years, while 2017% are 18 to 22 years
- 57% said they were ex-partners who posted the explicit material. 7% said a family member posed for it, while 23% said a friend did
- Alongside the revenge porn, 59% of the victims said their full name was published
- 14% said the posts had their work address
- 16% had their physical home address
- 20% had the phone number
- 49% had a screenshot on their social media profile networks
- 25% close to down their social media profiles
- More than half of the victims developed suicidal thoughts after the incident
- 3% even changed their real name
- 6% were dismissed from their workplace or sent out of school
- 42% sought psychology therapy services
- 13% lost their partners after the incident
- 30% report harassment and stocking
Why Do People Publish Revenge Pornography?
Sometimes, it’s difficult to understand the exact motive behind the distribution and publishing of someone else’s explicit material videos and pictures without their consent. The term ‘revenge’ can be misleading because it points to an emotional outpour after betrayal or injustice.
When someone feels that they have been mistreated in a relationship, it’s common for them to seek revenge. So, they may want to target their partners by publishing their nudes to the public.
But, as you will find out, there are several reasons people decide to distribute revenge pornography, and it goes deeper than just a reaction to a bad breakup. Sometimes, it’s all about the good old philosophy of money.
1. Anonymity
While the internet can expose your information to millions of users, it also offers a huge chunk of anonymity. The fact that there are platforms where people can distribute any material anonymously and without being tracked down motivates many people to be delinquent.
It’s just like when the light turns off, and the dark sucks up all the evil of a community. In the same way, when people have the power to publish content without being seen or noticed, they can anonymously feel the privilege to publish non-consensual nudes without any reprimand.
2. For the Money
Some websites will even pay users with the most views for this content. The websites don’t even check whether the content is legally obtained. So, they will allow the publishers to upload content obtained from non-consenting individuals. This talks about every adult website allowing anyone to create an account and upload content.
3. Online Validation
Some online platforms and forums even reward the users who share the largest number of nude pictures. So, in search of heroism, the users will often compete for the top of the hierarchy by working hard to find any pictures of nude people at the top of the list.
The forums will then promote the users with the highest views for their published posts. Some will give them trophies and place them at the top levels of the hierarchy. This keeps the users in a competition frenzy, and they will not consider publishing your private photos and videos.
4. Bitterness after Breakups
The primitive desire to get back and settle old scores on someone who hurt you is common. Partners may feel the drive to press the revenge button when love goes sour. Specifically, many partners will go to their chats and pick sensitive pictures and videos and then share them on the internet to punish the victim. Some pornography perpetrators just want to make sure their ex-partners are hit hard in the worst possible way by tarnishing their names and images in the eyes of the world.
Dangers of Revenge Porn: The Effects on Victims and Community
Trust me, you don’t want to be a victim of revenge. It is excruciating, tiresome, and tarnishes your name. You meet new people and don’t know how to deal with them because you’re worried they already have pictures of you in compromising situations. And this takes a huge toll on your emotional and psychological well-being.
First, your mental health is affected adversely, and your social life hits a huge iceberg like the Titanic. You find interacting with your family members and friends difficult because you feel embarrassed.
When you arrive at your workplace or school, everyone looks at you like they have seen the devil’s head on a spike.
Some people will even claim that you did it intentionally and that you are another adult content creator who leaked pictures to gain traction and attention.
And all this does not even come close to the real consequences of non-consensual pornography. Here are some of them:
1. Physical Danger
Among the biggest risks of Revenge pornography is physical harm. Finding your info, such as name or address, published along with sexually inspired content normally creates a lot of unsafe situations. Research shows that 1 in 12 American adults have been victims of non-consensual pornography.
And most of these reports show that women are more likely to be targeted than men. Most of the women who experience this kind of punishment develop serious psychological problems. Stalkers follow up with information such as address and phone number to try and track down the victim. The snoops even start finding their way to the victim’s home address, and they could easily cause physical harm to the individual.
2. Blackmail and Extortion of Money
In most cases, the main idea behind the leakage of nude photos is to quench the desire of an ex-partner to get back on an issue. But sometimes, it’s the good old capitalism. But, some people will just get hold of your pictures in compromising situations and then use it to blackmail you for money.
They plan to hold you at ransom and make sure that you send them as much money as possible so that the sexual photos can either be removed or not distributed at all. Here, your money gets to talk. Sexploitation, as it has been called these days, continues even after you pay because the content is already on several other websites.
Some websites will tell you to place a removal request where they will ask you for money. For example, extortionists might threaten to continue releasing more photos and videos if you do not send the money they want.
Sometimes, the extortion is not in the form of money- the perpetrator just wants you to do certain personal favors so that they can stop releasing these pictures and embarrassing you.
3. Cyberbullying and Harassment
Most revenge pornography is shared on forums and some groups on social media. And when a victim gets exposed to this kind of embarrassing adversity, they will become the target of cyberbullying. Lots of aggressive messages and internet users will show how evil the victim is.
The victims shaming tendency even gets more aggravated by rape threats and sometimes even death warrants. Considering that the majority of the victims are minorities and women, especially those of color and LGBTQI+ individuals, this kind of harassment normally turns racist, sexist, homophobic, and gross.
4. Reputational Damage
While you might reason humanly that there should be nothing shameful about engaging in sexual contact with another consenting adult, this is not always the case. The world we live in judges people based on their sexual behavior, and how this is sad and awkward, considering that everyone is a product of sexual activity. The victims of revenge pornography become the objects of general shaming and blaming, and they lose a huge chunk of the repetition.
In most cases, nude pictures and videos will end up in the hands of your family members, friends, colleagues, bosses, and classmates. And, since the process of removing content online takes a lot of time, revenge pornography can have a permanent effect and even compromise your entire life’s reputation.
Just imagine what would happen if your children, whom you wanted to raise in a conservative religious family, somehow found pictures of you naked on the internet. It’d certainly become so hard when you want to raise them in any moral way.
Also, your reputation might cost you your career and make you a target of bullying around your school or workplace. Every social space you go to might have bullies who want to remind you that they saw pictures of you in a compromising situation.
Some companies even decide to lay off workers with a tainted reputation because they assume it will harm their branding and image.
And in most cases, women victims are always the ones to be blamed. Even when it’s the man who posted this kind of content, the women in those pictures and videos will carry shame and embarrassment alone.
But if you’re the victim of nonconsensual pornography, always remember that you’re not exactly the one to be blamed. While it’s true you might have taken nude pictures and sent them to someone else, you did not intend that those pictures would go to the entire world.
The receiver was supposed to use them in a very confined private situation. And no matter what the people around you try to say about you, remember that no one else should have the right to share your private photos without your explicit permission.
Also, with the advent of social media and turning the world into a global village, sexting sex messaging is part of today’s life, especially for long-distance relationships. People always want to interact as real humans with each other despite the distance between them. Messaging technology helps connect these people, which should be good.
However, your online privacy should come first when doing this. You must guard all your interactions with people and always be responsible for your privacy. Again, if anyone takes those pictures out of context and sends them to the public, they abuse your privacy and should carry the blame.
5. Psychological Damage and Distress
One of the worst effects of revenge pornography is the psychological distress it causes to the victims. One day, you are holding yourself in high regard, and then the next, your pictures are trending everywhere, and everyone thinks you are a part-time adult content creator. This is a direct attack on your mental well-being.
And once you are the target of revenge porn, you’re likely to develop lots of psychological symptoms, and you have to live with these serious problems. Many victims of sexual abuse end up with mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, isolation, insomnia, etc.
The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative organization found that 51% of the victims of revenge porn developed serious suicidal thoughts. And it’s understandable with the feeling of shame, sadness, and powerlessness that the victim gets. And instead of anyone supporting them, the victims are often the object of blame both by family, friends, and other support networks, even by the official authorities.
Just seems so difficult for anyone to understand the world from the victim’s point of view. So, the majority of victims normally feel alone, hated by everyone, and like the world is coming down for them. And it’s not surprising that the majority even end up developing the desire to end their lives sadly.
DeepFakes: How AI Technology is Weaponizing Revenge Porn
The world is moving quite fast to add artificial intelligence technology, and revenge pornography is not left behind. Artificial intelligence allows content creators to create massive volumes and quality videos and pictures. In the past, people had to design pictures and videos manually using complicated software. These days, artificial intelligence just needs you to insert a face or choose a picture, and it’ll do the rest. So, even hackers and cybercriminals with little knowledge can easily make a high-quality video or picture that looks real.
The deepfake is usually media generated by artificial intelligence manipulation, which allows abusers to pick and insert the face of a victim into pornography content. Even if you have never taken any naked pictures of yourself throughout your life, there’s a probability that you might become a victim of non-consensual pornography.
Imagine waking up one day and looking at your face on a video that you did participate in. Well, now that’s the new trend!
Deepfake technology is usually common in political campaigns and puts faces to people talking about unpopular things in the public’s eyes. The idea is to change and demean an individual’s public perception.
But these days, technology is not only used against opposing politicians. Instead, it’s on revenge porn, and many people are suffering from the horrendous ordeal of being linked to adult content they never participated in.
A study by Sensity AI shows that 90 to 95% of all the difficult content is usually non-consensual pornography. And 19% of all that is targeted at innocent women.
In 2019, an app called DeepNude AI application allowed users to virtually undress women. In short, you could take a picture of a woman from anywhere and then put it on the app, and she would be undressed. When the COVID-19 pandemic came, people stuck to their houses for the quarantine and minimized travel. Most people spend their time online, so many AI applications have become very popular. And, because few people walked out to create content, they normally relied on artificial intelligence to keep their trade thriving.
This Deep Fake pornography and technology show just how large of an issue artificial intelligence is weaponizing cybercrime and cyberbullying. It also increases sexual violence against innocent victims both online and offline. And even though the Deep Fake footage may not be real, it almost looks real, and the effects on the victims’ physical well-being are the same.
Hope for Victims of Revenge Porn: Steps to Take
If the person takes the photos against your will, that becomes an infringement of privacy. Even if you took the pictures yourself, sharing them with the public is a crime.
But all is not lost because there are certain steps that you can take to alleviate the problem. Each of these tips will give hope to victims of revenge pornography while still considering the sensitivity of the matter, especially to your mental health and physical security.
1. Accept that it Happened
This will be tough, but you need to sit yourself down and accept that the damage is done. Accepting the current situation will help you move forward with an objective plan. While crying is part of healing, don’t just sit there without talking to experts. Accepting situations, regardless of how painful they are, helps you have enough energy and gain enough traction for a good plan.
Visiting a psychologist or someone offering support is more important now. You will be ready to take off once you acknowledge your mistakes and understand your strengths and weaknesses. You are human, and mistakes happen, so this should be what you should think.
2. Gather Enough Evidence
One of the most uncomfortable things to do after you realize your victim of revenge porn is to collect evidence. It’s one of the hardest things because you have to go to those websites that are embarrassing you and take screenshots of yourself in their pictures or videos. Collect other details, such as the username of anyone on those platforms who is harassing you. Record all the evidence of cyberbullying or threats you get online and prepare them.
This evidence and proof will build a strong case of how you’ve been a victim. If you’re still worried about how you can store this content so that it either doesn’t get lost or gets into the hands of other malicious cyberbullies, then you can get a secure cloud space or private emailing services.
3. Understand Your Rights and Freedoms
Most of the States in America have already made revenge porn illegal in law. 48 States, Washington DC, and two other territories already view non-consensual pornography as a crime. Of course, the degree of legality varies depending on the situation and jurisdiction. However, there are still several pieces of legislation that you can fall back on if you are a victim.
The CCRI outlines an overview of the anti-revenge porn laws in every American state. You can check with them to know how your jurisdiction views this vice. Also, you will get more information on Deepfakes laws and sextortion legislation in several jurisdictions.
When you understand the laws clearly, you can now talk to your local law enforcement. You can deal with a police officer or a lawyer on this matter.
Still, remember that you have the following rights:
- You have the right to demand that the images or videos be taken down or destroyed.
- You can hold the perpetrator accountable by launching criminal charges or civil action.
In short, you can have malicious individuals pay you for the damages and pain they’ve caused you, or they could even be imprisoned.
4. Legislation
There are several lawsuits, especially on revenge porn today, more than ever before. Most legal action, of course, depends on the jurisdiction and the available legislation. However, in most of these cases, legal claims are based on violations of privacy, cyber harassment, and extortion.
But these days, many jurisdictions are going a different legal route with the legislation. Some countries and states are seeking to Institute laws that are more specific to revenge porn.
In any way, you need to seek the advice of a legal professional who will guide you on the steps to take when you want to initiate a legal approach:
- Copyright laws: At least understand that the photos you have found online about you may not always belong to you. But if the photo was a selfie, then it means you took it and owned it. So, you can claim it based on the copyright laws. As long as you prove the photo is yours by how it was taken and its content, you technically own its copyright and can have it removed and paid for.
- Defamation laws: The law takes your reputation seriously, and if someone slanders you, you can count the damages you suffered. If your reputation, personal life, and public image have been ruined by the distribution of the photos on the internet, then you can make a valid defamation claim. Most of the damages are related to therapy costs, emotional distress, and loss of income or time.
5. Removal of Content
You can also formulate and lodge a removal request. This means you want your photos and videos taken down, so you send a takedown request to the website with your images and videos.
Here is the process of launching a removal or takedown request:
Check with the Website’s Removal Policies
Most websites disclaim the liability for any user-generated content, but when you press them, they will make attempts to block any images or videos that show revenge porn. The rules are different depending on the platform you’re dealing with.
But, the main rules that cut across the majority of social media sites include:
- There’s an agreed ban and blocking of nonconsensual pornography for Facebook, Twitter (X), Tumblr, Reddit, and Instagram.
- Explicit content is disallowed on YouTube and Google Drive.
- Users have the power to flag down apps with inappropriate content on Google Play.
- Microsoft has an active removal of nonconsensual porn on all their consumer services and Xbox, and OneDrive, among others.
Request for Removal
After you understand the company’s removal policies, you can launch your remover request. Most search engines provide you with a form to fill out for the removal of any damaging revenge pornography from the results search page.
Remember that removing content from the search engine results page does not necessarily delete it from the original revenge porn website.
If you are on Facebook, follow these steps:
- Click on the video of all the photos that you want to report.
- Now, head to Options in the bottom right corner.
- Now, select Report Photo or the video.
To send a remover request on Instagram, follow the steps below:
- Tap on the three dots piled on a post or profile.
- Now tap on report for spam.
- Then select that it’s inappropriate.
If you want to report on Reddit, follow these steps:
- Click the comment link under the post.
- Now click Report.
- Then, enter the report reason as involuntary pornography.
- Then click on submit.
You can also send the URL to [email protected] and request for removal.
If your photos or videos are on a different platform, you can notify the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) for their removal service.
You can fill out the form and request removal. The DMCA will charge you $199 for every removal. You can go for a free or cheap service, but you will have to check if they are legitimate in the first place. But, the DMCA is a reliable payable service for any content you wish to get removed from websites for copyright infringement.
Finally, you can also contact specific pornographic websites for removal requests. of course, you must find out whether they have an active revenge pawn policy. Pornhub has a form in which you can fill out and get certain content removed.
Other important resources
One of the best platforms to find proper resources against revenge porn is the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, which offers a 24-hour crisis hotline number that will support you immediately.
Other support platforms you can find include:
- The Right to Be for victims of any form of online harassment
- Very porn helpline in the UK
- And then international resources from the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative for every country around the world
And if you ever get concerned about your personal physical safety or the safety of someone who has been bullied, then you can always resort to the American National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800799 7233.
6. Revenge Help for Underage
It’s sad that even children, especially teenagers, are targets of revenge pornography. Consent age is a concept that depends on jurisdiction. It is 16 in some places and 18 years, depending on which country. If you are under the legal age, and you haven’t hit the legal age, and someone distributes videos or images about you on the internet, this is considered child pornography. And as you can already guess, it’s an offense in all the jurisdictions around the world.
But, the first step is to confide in your guardian or someone you fully trust. Let them guide you through the content and mention your real age. Demand that they take the content down immediately, and you can even threaten to launch a legal action.
In this matter, make sure to contact law enforcement. You see, spreading the images of people who are not of age on the internet is a criminal offense that every jurisdiction around the world is trying to fight again next. So, decide on the best legal action to take, and if you cannot do that, get the support of an attorney or the police.
Revenge Porn Laws
The consequences of sharing non-consensual NSFW content on the internet have been lenient over the past years. For instance, revenge pornography was not even considered a misdemeanor or crime in the United States until recently.
However, today, we have more than 50 states that have adopted the criminalization of revenge pornography. The majority of these states make it illegal to distribute any form of intimate images or videos that hurt a victim without their consent.
New York took the law a step higher in 2017 by making it a felony even to threaten someone with revenge pornography. Several activists around the United States and the world are calling on their respective governments to make revenge porn illegal.
In the United Kingdom, it is criminal to share any private sexual images or videos of anyone without consent, both online and offline. And they put a punishment of up to two years for this.
A new law that could also criminalize the sharing of any non-consensual pornographic deepfakes is also in the offing.
Several European countries have also adopted laws that protect the victims of revenge pornography. This includes Canada and New Zealand, which have enacted legislation to control this horrendous crime.
However, many Asian and African countries are slowly moving in the process of criminalizing revenge pornography. And, despite all the image-based sexual abuse that dominates the platforms of these continents, many countries do not have laws in place.
Then, many of the victims are women, and men are the perpetrators, but we do not have operational laws in Japan, Israel, Singapore, the Philippines, and South Africa.
How to Prevent Revenge Pornography
After finding out the dreadful effects of revenge porn, you might want to stay away. You’ve already seen that some victims even contemplate suicide. Add that to the damaged social life and the embarrassment.
So, how exactly can you stay away from the possibility of being a victim of nonconsensual pornography?
After reading this post, you might have started getting worried about your nude pictures circulating on the internet. But then, deep fake technology proves that even completely abstaining from sending NSFW photos of yourself cannot fully protect you from falling victim.
Also, it’s important to agree that there is nothing wrong with you sending pictures of yourself to people that you love. If you have a partner, it is okay for you to send them explicit pictures. The problem comes when you are an expert and decide to fix pictures meant to be for you two and for the world again to your will.
Of course, one of the easiest ways to prevent revenge pornography is by never sending any images containing your nudes at all, but this normally blames the victim, and women are usually the centers of this part.
However, even as the victim takes the heat and fairly, it’s important to stress out online privacy. You should take control of what you share on the internet. Before you share intimate photos of yourself, make sure they go through several privacy and security checks.
Here are tips to keep yourself safe and limit the probability of falling prey to revenge porn perpetrators:
1. Secure Your Identity on Intimate Pictures
One good safety measure is not to include your face or anything that might identify you in person on any of the pictures or videos you send to others. You see, your nude selfies identify you and thus make you an object of all the bashing that comes after a leak. If any sexual content gets leaked and no one can recognize you, then you will not exactly be a victim. You can either blur it or crop it off from the picture.
This case should go with any recognizable features such as tattoos or birthmarks that people can relate to you. You can even remove the metadata from your picture just to ensure it does not reveal anything about you or the device you used.
2. Don’t let Anyone Film Your Nudity without Your Consent
Don’t jump into the pressure of getting your partner to pick pictures of you. Whether it’s a stranger or anyone else, don’t let anyone take an intimate film of you, and if anyone has a picture or video of you when you are naked, then you need to demand they delete it.
At least don’t allow anyone to have the power to blackmail you because they have sensitive information about you. Take full control of your privacy. If there is any picture or video about your nudity, at least it should be in your own custody.
3. Turn Off All Geotagging on Your Smartphone
Don’t allow hackers to identify most devices with features that require your location to be available. Most social media companies and big tech normally require that you turn on your location settings so they can customize your experience. But while there are reasons why they do, your location also provides a gateway for hackers.
For example, if they have your IP address, they can easily know where to find you and launch a cyber attack. So always ensure that the pictures have no information about your details or anything that might identify you in person. And when you take a picture, remove any metadata before sending it to anyone else. If you are an Onlyfans creator, this tactic might keep you safe from snoops.
4. Teach Your Kids
If you have children who are in their teenage years, then it’s the perfect moment to talk to them about sexting and the sharing of any sensitive information. At least, be the one that breaks the news to them that revenge porn is real and it could hurt them hard. Teach them the importance of online safety and how to only share information they can be okay if it’s online.
Also, guide your teenagers on the measures to take when sharing intimate photos or videos of themselves. Let them know that you know that they probably do it.
Then, although your teenagers have the right to their privacy, you need to discuss online safety practices to avoid and where they are subjected to this kind of pain.
5. Optimize Your Privacy Settings on Your Socials
Most social media platforms give you the power to tweak your privacy settings. However, you have to understand that although your social media account is theoretically private, it’s easy for strangers to obtain the photos you have posted. It is also possible for clever stalkers and other followers to find your deleted pictures. That’s why you need to optimize your privacy settings. Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram allow you to change the settings on a video or picture you post.
Online Privacy: Protecting Your Safety on the Internet
The best way to protect yourself against revenge porn is to make sure that you are the first line of defense against the leakage of your private information. Once you have all the power to protect yourself, you can easily know when and what to send to another person. Security and online privacy starts with you, and that’s exactly why we are guiding you through this process.
So, once you take pictures of yourself and store them on your device, you must understand that hackers can still get them. Apart from people who use advanced technology to crack into your phone and take control, your friends and other people with access to your phone can easily find the pictures and leave them online. This calls for you to optimize your general online safety.
If you have any intimate photos of yourself on your smartphone or other device, here are recommendations for protecting them:
1. Get a VPN
A reliable VPN like ExtremeVPN encrypts your internet traffic and gives you a new IP address. The VPN lets you use the company’s servers as your main location, which confuses anyone who tries to track you down on the internet. Remember, hackers use your IP address to track you down. So, when you use an IP address different from yours, you ruin their entire plan! Also, ExtremeVPN protects your connection by encrypting it with military-grade protocols to ensure no one can intercept your traffic.
2. Know Which Information You Hold
You must understand the nature of your sensitive information on your device. Classify the files, photos, and videos to know the most sensitive, and then create a separate secure folder for your most sensitive file. Then, don’t forget to have a strong password; if you can easily forget this password, you will also need a secure password manager.
3. Invest in a Strong Virus Scanner
Hackers normally use programs that can change how your device works. For example, the hacker may infect your device with malware that can change the nature of files stored in it. And sometimes, the hacker will even take full control of your device and access sensitive files. Others will plant spyware on your device to track your location or what you do. So, when you take a picture, storing it on the hacker’s servers or cloud storage systems will be straightforward.
But you can defeat these malicious guys with the help of strong antivirus software. The antivirus program will scan and delete your device for malicious codes or software.
4. Keep Updated on Online Security
Online security is no longer a privilege of Harvard software engineers, millennials, and Gen Z. Everyone is affected and must understand how it works. The best way to keep yourself safe on the internet is to understand the nature of online privacy. At least keep yourself updated with the newest trends in technology so you can always be ahead of the game. And don’t forget to train your children to stay safe on the internet.
Why am I Being Targeted for Revenge Porn?
Being the target of revenge porn and online harassment can leave you in deep trauma. The “Why me?” feeling can’t escape your mind soon. Fortunately, there are ways in which you can cope with the adverse effects of cyberbullying and harassment.
But there are several reasons you could be targeted by image-based sexual harassment. While it’s not your fault, the perpetrator will try to make you look bad in the eyes of the public.
There are several reasons why people target you, including:
- Misogyny: Sometimes, the perpetrator is just another misogynistic man trying to feel good about harassing women. Most victims are female, and the majority of the bullies are men. The reason the perpetrator distributes images and videos that will hurt the woman is sometimes nothing else but prejudice against women.
- Sexual inadequacy: Some people just want to draw attention away from their sexual shortcomings by humiliating others.
- Jealousy: Love gone sour can be tough on some people who don’t want to see you with another partner. The sense of possessiveness that drives ex-partners to target you to make your process of finding a future relationship unsuccessful.
- Vindictiveness: some perpetrators feel hurt due to past pains and are always looking for a chance to let it go. So, instead of directly addressing the person who hurt them, they try to get revenge. Most of the perpetrators are individuals who have been able to deal with the loss or breakup. Hence, they decide to inflict emotional pain on their ex-partners by using non-consensual pornography.
- Greed for money: some of these perpetrators are just looking for money. They acquire your private videos and pictures and then blackmail you to give a ransom if you do not want them to distribute to the public. These extortionists will use the services of hackers to access your devices without authorization. Then, when they have your nude pictures, they’ll pull the blackmail card.
Whatever the motive for sharing private content with other people, people are always trying to address a weakness in themselves. In most cases, it has nothing to do with you but everything to do with them. You should not feel guilty that another person took your pictures and distributed them all over the internet. Do not fall prey to victim shaming.
Conclusion
As the world continues to witness exponential growth in technology, evil isn’t left behind. Tech companies are creating huge platforms to connect billions of people and shopping sites. Educationists have a chance to teach students online and break the chains of ignorance in the world.
But, at the same time, some people are using technology to harass, bully, and ruin other people’s lives. Revenge pornography is one of these dangerous trends whose popularity gains traction with every new technological discovery.
Just when you think the nude pictures you take are private, someone could be watching and trying to distribute them to the entire public! Young women and people from minority communities are the main targets. And although several jurisdictions are working to legislate and regulate this crime, the consequences are life-changing for the victims.
If you’re a victim of revenge pornography, your best bet should be to find both legal and therapeutic support. And, if you haven’t yet, it’s only safe to practice safe sexting and observe proper online safety measures.
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