One in five Australians falls victim to “revenge porn”. Youngsters and sexual minorities most at risk

One in five people fall victim to “revenge porn”, a study conducted in Australia shows. In an attempt to reveal the scale of the phenomenon, researchers from RMIT University and Monash University surveyed more than 4200 people and found that this type of abuse is far more common than previously thought.

The findings show that men and women can equally fall victims of “revenge porn” with 22% of women and 23% of men reporting an abuse. But youngsters and sexual minorities are far more likely to suffer this type of abuse. Sexual minorities reported abuse in 36% of the cases while 21% of heterosexuals said they had fallen victims of “revenge porn“.

Marginalised groups are especially vulnerable, with image-based abuse hitting one in two persons with disabilities and also lesbians, gays and bisexual Australians. 56% of people with a disability and 50% of Indigenous Australians had been victims of image-based abuse, the survey showed.

Taking nude images without consent was recorded as the most frequent type of “revenge porn”, followed by distributing intimate images without consent and threatening to share explicit photos.

Depression, anxiety and fearing for safety

Victims of “sextortion” often suffer of depression and/or anxiety especially when the images get distributed and the psychological damage among victims is sever, the survey shows. 80% of people who had experienced “revenge porn” reported high levels of psychological distress, consistent with moderate to severe depression and/or anxiety disorder, with 46% also feeling highly fearful for their safety. And women are much more likely to fear for their safety because of “revenge porn”.

Moderate to severe depression and/or anxiety affected 75% of victims whose images were distributed, and 67% of those whose images were taken without consent.

And specialists warn that the pain this kind of abuse inflicts on victims and the humiliation goes beyond that of a normal break-up .

“This isn’t just about ‘revenge porn’ – images are being used to control, abuse and humiliate people in ways that go well beyond the ‘relationship gone sour’ scenario,” chief investigator, RMIT University’s Dr Nicola Henry, said in a statement.

While women and men can equally fall victim to sextortion, the majority of perpetrators are male, the survey finds. 54% of victims said that the harasser was male while 33% reported the perpetrator as being female. In 13% of the cases, the victims were harassed by unknown people or by a mixed group. In the case of women, there is the highest probability that the perpetrator is a intimate partner or ex-partner.

While women are more at risk of having their pictures taken by strangers, without their consent, men and young adults are more likely to voluntarily share a nude or sexual image of themselves. People who had shared sexual selfies were three times more likely to have been victimised  than those who had never sent a sexual image.

Teenagers and young adults, with ages between 16 and 19 are more have reported more cases than older adults, aged 20 to 29.

New laws and a change in mentality

The report also asks for immediate action as the national laws, often times, fail to keep up with the technological advancements and victims have difficulties in reporting and putting an end to the abuse.

“Image-based abuse has emerged so rapidly as an issue that inevitably our laws and policies are struggling to catch up,” Henry added.

Without a comprehensible system of support and legal actions, it is hard for victims to get justice and in some cases, they are even blamed for the abuse. Changing the society’s attitude is also important in order to efficiently fight against “sextortion”.

“We need to rethink our approach both from a legal perspective but also as a community, to change attitudes that often blame the victims and play down the very real harm caused by image-based abuse,” said RMIT’s Dr Anastasia Powell.

The research by Henry, Powell and Monash University’s Dr Asher Flynn recommends a range of reforms, including improved support services for victims such as a dedicated helpline similar to the “Revenge Porn Helpline” established in the United Kingdom in 2015.

Researchers are asking for making image-based abuse a crime under federal telecommunications law as only Victoria and South Australia have specific laws that criminalise the distribution of intimate or invasive images without consent. The majority of those that participated at the survey said that they would agree with such a measure.

But federal authorities are not the only ones that should take notice. Asher Flynn, working at the study, says that social media and internet companies should also have a more vigorous response.

“Social media providers and internet companies need to introduce strong and proactive measures that take seriously the harms of image-based abuse, and seek to create safe online spaces for victims,” she said.

Microsoft, Google and Facebook announced measures to tackle “revenge porn”, helping victims report abuse and Facebook has even announced a measure that allows for photo recognition in order to stop the stream of shared materials online.

While their study is comprehensible, the researchers warn that it is likely that the survey underestimated the actual extent of the abuse.

“Our survey only captured those victims who had become aware their images had been distributed, whereas some victims may never discover that their images have been taken and distributed, particularly if they are circulated on sites located on the dark web,”  Flynn added.

The study findings are from a national online survey of 4274 people aged 16 to 49.

A report released by the Data & Society Research Institute and the Center for Innovative Public Health Research on non-consensual image sharing estimated that one in 25 online Americans has fallen victim to “revenge porn” while one in ten young women have been threatened with the possibility of public posting of explicit images. It also highlighted that just like in Australia, members of the LGBT community are far more likely to be victims of “sextortion”.