Leaked Sex Tapes Are Not A Genre: Stop Victim Blaming
**Trigger warning: sexual assault, rape, domestic abuse
A suggestive message, a revealing selfie, or explicit photographs and videos shared between lovers. These are the intimate exchanges of the longing and lustful, the flavours that keep desire burning as modern relationships move increasingly into the digital sphere. Whether inter-city living, long-distance or long days at work keep you apart, intimate content is a normal and important part of many relationships. Consensual sexual media sent to a partner is, for many couples, a symbol of both passion and trust. But what happens when that trust is broken? And are our nudes really safe?
At some stage in their life, most people have sent some sort of intimate content to another person. Particularly amongst millennials and younger, this has become a regular challenge and milestone as we navigate the world of sex and relationships. But as sexual liberation slowly but surely overtakes the outdated secrecy and shame, the associated risks become more apparent. With the ever-increasing availability of information on the internet, even our private conversations no longer feel safe. In an episode of BBC Radio 4’s Beyond Today podcast, Connor Gilles highlights the issue of non-consensual porn being spread all over the internet. Intimate images of unwitting victims are found on file-sharing websites such as Mega NZ, xHamster and Reddit, where many victims’ names and locations are also disclosed. Files can be downloaded and reuploaded with surprising ease, allowing them to be redistributed at an alarming rate.
Pornhub, the world’s largest pornography site, receives around 115 million visits every day. But it recently faced backlash over the furtive trafficking and sexual violence that the site’s lack of regulation facilitates. Owned by MindGeek, Pornhub allows users to upload videos, meaning non-consensual and underage content is often shared without question. Amidst professional pornographic creators and actors, there have been multiple cases where the subject did not consent to videos of them being uploaded to the site. Rose Kalemba was just 14 when she was kidnapped at knifepoint and raped. She had to beg Pornhub for over a year to remove videos of her sexual assault, which they only did when threatened with legal action. Despite adding a non-consensual content removal system in 2015, many more victims have come forward with stories of abuse and sex trafficking that have been glamorised by internet porn. But the company’s subpar attempt to regulate content coincided with important updates to legislation.
In April 2015, the Criminal Justice and Courts Act made it a criminal offence to distribute images or videos of a sexual nature without the consent of those featured. The new legislation made it illegal to share content both on and offline without consent, or if such disclosure was intended to cause distress. This intimate image abuse, or non-consensual pornography, quickly became known as revenge porn. The phrase was coined in reference to the specific distribution of pornographic material by bitter, revenge-seeking ex-partners. Since then, more than 700 people have been convicted, of which over 150 have gone straight to prison. But the reality is that only a small proportion of these cases reach trial, and even fewer are reported. Because when victims do come forward, they are often met with hostility and blame.
Image-based abuse is not only a total violation of trust but cruel psychological abuse. The threat of exposure, for many victims, takes a greater toll than the physical distribution of their images. The concerns over what will happen if such content is shown to friends, families and colleagues can have life-shattering impacts. According to domestic abuse organisation Refuge, one in 14 adults have received threats to share their intimate images. Amongst young women, this rises to one in seven. And one in 10 said that threats of this nature had resulted in severe psychological effects, including depression and suicidal thoughts. Though threatening non-consensual pornography distribution is an offence under the communications act, the legislation fails to protect victims. Many find it difficult to obtain support from family and friends, let alone the police. Anyone with access to such images has unrivalled control over the victim, because nudes are yet to be normalised in mainstream media.
With the threat of shame and exposure hanging over their heads, victims often find themselves at the whim of perpetrators. Revenge porn is not only a betrayal of trust, but a complex power dynamic used to manipulate and control victims. This echoes actions of domestic abusers to assert authority. With many forced to stay at home over lockdown, the UK has seen a stark increase in the number of people accessing revenge porn advice and helplines since the beginning of lockdown. Organisations such as Revenge Porn Hotline provide support and advice for victims. They have been overwhelmed with the rise in cases and disappointed by the lack of support from social media and porn sites to remove non-consensual content. During the pandemic, victims have highlighted difficulties in removing private material from sites including Instagram, where there is no revenge-porn flagging system. Instead, posts must be reported as nudity, which is then reviewed by a workforce already diminished by the virus.
These difficulties echo those faced by those seeking legal action over their nudes being shared without consent, either by hackers or vengeful partners (present or past). Often, others respond to their abuse by telling them to be more careful or that they should not send nudes in the first place. There are far more articles on staying safe when sending intimate images (cover your face, tattoos, identifiable birthmarks) than there are discussing the prosecution of revenge porn perpetrators. It is the same victim blaming culture that tells women not to wear revealing clothing to avoid sexual harassment. Essentially, it feeds into the rhetoric that the victim is somewhat to blame for their own abuse. Instead of focusing on increasing online security and procuring greater sanctions for offenders, victims are left feeling ashamed and guilty. Frequently, the focus is shifted from the violation and abuse they have been subjected to, to how they could have been safer.
Of course, there are some ways that we can maximise our safety and security when it comes to sex. Particularly online. But this should never be preached at the expense of a victim’s validation. And to imply revenge porn can be resolved by simply cancelling nudes is a ludicrous and narrow-minded philosophy. It subscribes to an outdated attitude that denigrates sexuality and promiscuity – particularly for women. Whilst 68 per cent of porn hub users are male, it is women that are disproportionately affected by image-based abuse. One survey found that 72 per cent of women had received threats by a current or former partner to share intimate images. A 2017 Australian study found that perpetrators were more likely to be male. Though men also suffer from domestic, image-based and sexual abuse, it is women that find themselves most threatened by details of their sexuality being exposed. It is predominantly young women that are victimised, and then blamed for their own suffering.
So, with sexual content more readily available than ever, there needs to be greater regulation on the content that is out there. It needs to be easier for media users to flag and remove non-consensual imagery. Sanctions must be increased, and a greater focus placed on convicting perpetrators of image-based abuse, whether that consists of sharing content or threatening to do so. It is not a community violation, but a crime. And greater support must be provided for victims, some of whom have been forced to change jobs and names, even relocate, to escape the aftermath of their abuse. The issue lies two-fold in a lack of support and outdated attitudes towards sexuality that infer shame on exposed individuals.
If you send nudes to bae, good on you. It is a normal – and liberating – act that can strengthen your relationship. But if you find those nudes to have been spread elsewhere, know that you are not to blame. And support is out there. Leaked sex tapes are a crime not a genre, and revenge porn is abhorrent abuse. Rather than vilify victims, we must target abusers and ensure there are sufficient consequences for their actions.
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