As the use of intimate images and videos to cause harm continues to evolve - it’s important that we do our best to stay current on the latest issues facing modern victims. But for staying on top of these trends is easier said than done!
To make things a little easier, we’re going to provide updates and resources we think will help folks stay current and that they can use in their work.
Report on Intimate Image Abuse
This recent report from the aways amazing Revenge Porn Hotline is entitled ‘Intimate image abuse, an evolving landscape’ and is full of powerful statistics.
Reports to the RPH doubled in 2020 and continue to rise.
Cases of sextortion (webcam blackmail) tripled in 2020.
Intimate image abuse is predominantly male–perpetrated, accounting for over 76% of cases where the perpetrators’ gender is known.
New Trend: Collector Culture
A disturbing new trend in Intimate Image Abuse that needs to be on our radar is collector culture. RPH identifies this trend in their report and this article takes a deep dive into the impact on victims. What this means is that people (and let’s be honest, likely men) are collecting, posting, collating and trading intimate images of women.
This is happening on platforms like Reddit, Dropbox, Discord or anywhere groups can share. On Reddit, anonymous users post images of (likely oblivious) women with captions such as “trading my gf nudes” and “trading gf.” Interested parties are then usually directed to personal accounts on Snapchat or the messaging app Kik.
One impact of this trend is that victims who thought they put the abuse behind them or haven’t had their images surface for some time have to face a reality where the abuse starts again by people with whom they have no connection. This is a stark reminder of the lasting trauma experienced by survivors of Intimate Image Abuse. As Jennifer Lawrence recently stated in Vanity Fair about her experience of her nude images still being shared - “My trauma will last forever.”
New Perspective, Old Abuse:
In our work, it’s important to clarify that the Internet didn’t create Intimate Image Abuse - it amplified it. The recent news about Playboy founder Hugh Hefner illustrates this point perfectly. It’s been revealed that he had an extensive abusive history of taking, storing and sharing massive amounts of images of nude (often incapacitated) women.
How did he do it? With a disposable camera.
He was known to then make photo copies of the images and physically distribute them - or keep them for leverage, which is one reason Holly Madison was afraid to leave their relationship.
At the end of the day, tech-facilitated abuse is less about the tech, and mostly about the abuse. It’s easy to lose sight of this - but blaming technology can mean shifting the responsibility away from the person who causes the harm. And those individuals need to be held accountable.
Not-So-New, but Really Helpful Video:
This video Thorn created for students about sexting, nudes, sextortion and nonconsensual pornography rules. For connecting with youth, this is an outstanding tool to use as part of outreach efforts.