The practice of revenge pornography

Running Head: CYBER CRIME
REVENGE PORNOGRAPHY
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Author’s Note

CYBER CRIME1
Revenge pornography means the act of distribution and publication of sexually blunt
images and videos of persons including men and women and others without their permission.
According to Citron and Franks 2014, it has been explained as the means of sharing videos and
images of people engaging in sexual activities without their permission. Such sexual activities
may include any form of intimate relationship and video or image may be made with or without
the consent or knowledge of the person. The material with such image or video may be obtained
for the purposes of blackmailing or coercion to continue the relationship or a form of revenge for
not continuing the relationship.
The practice of revenge pornography has been explained as a form psychological abuse,
domestic violence and also sexual abuse depending upon the facts and circumstances of the case.
Bates 2015 has explained in her thesis “Stripped”: An Analysis of Revenge Porn Victims’ lives
after Victimization’ has explained that the such act aims to abuse the person by targeting their
personal space and intimacy and fear of losing integrity leading to psychological abuse, domestic
violence and sexual abuse. The aim of revenge porn is only to humiliate and intimidate the
person involved in the image or video. As Bazelon 2013 has mentioned, the act of revenge is
often misused with the act of non-consensual pornography and distributed for the purposes of
seeking money or profitable interest.
Victims of revenge pornography are the ones who require mental and legal support.
Instead the distribution of such videos expose victims to workplace discrimination and cyber
stalking accompanied by public shame and physical attack due to clarity of identity present in the
video. Given the bad publicity of the person’s reputation, the victims tend to lose their jobs and
social status (Citron 2013).

CYBER CRIME2
Revenge pornography has been held illegal and a punishable offence by many
jurisdictions by way of legislative enactments including Israel, Germany, United States, Europe,
Canada and Australia. Australia passed a law applicable to Commonwealth in 2018. However,
the states of Australian island including Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales, Northern
territory and so on have also criminalized the act of revenge pornography. Australian law also
have civil provisions in this regard.
Based on the national study commissioned by the Australian Office of the eSafety
Commissioner, 2017, it has been found out that 23% respondents were reported being a victim of
at least one form of revenge pornography. Most common allegations among the respondents
were that of nude or sexual images which were taken without their consent and with 20% of the
respondents reporting the incidence. The survey also resulted that 11% of the respondents
reported of distribution of their explicit photos or videos to other people without their consent.
However, the survey has indicated that 99% of the respondents experienced threat for
distribution of sexual explicit images and videos including their naked pictures and videos
without their consent.
The survey reported that men and women reported similar ratio of victimization.
However, some communities are more vulnerable to such acts and threats than the others like the
Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with disability, Lesbians and
Gays and Bisexual people, young people between the ages of 20-29.
The study has formed the basis to establish that 10.1% of the respondents accepted to
have been involved in self-disclosed perpetration of Image-Based Sexual Abuse (IBSA)
behavior. Approximately 9% accepted to have clicked explicit videos and pictures of people