UK sees massive increases in online sharing of revenge pornography over lockdown period

[pythonmegapixel]

Summary

According to statistics released by a UK charity, reported threats of "revenge porn" - where an individual has pornographic images of them shared without their consent as a form of abuse - have increased by over 20% during the Covid crisis, and show no signs of slowing down.

 

Quotes

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54149682

Quote

There has been a surge in reports of so-called revenge porn this year, with campaigners saying the problem has been exacerbated by lockdown.

Around 2,050 reports were made to a government-funded helpline, a 22% rise from last year.

As cases have remained high despite coronavirus restrictions easing, those that run the service fear this is "the new normal".

There have been more cases of non-consensual pornography reported to a dedicated UK helpline so far this year than in all of 2019.

Around two-thirds of cases reported to the helpline involve women.

 

David Wright, director of the UK Safer Internet Centre, said: "The lockdown produced an extreme set of circumstances which are bringing a lot of problems.

"What we are seeing here, however, suggests something more long-term has happened which could mean we will be busier than ever before. It's worrying to think this could be the new normal."

 

My thoughts

This is absolutely horrible. I cannot even begin to think how dreadful individuals who propagate this stuff must be. And the sad thing is that many of them will never be caught.

The Internet is a wonderful resource, but statistics like this can really open ones eyes to the horrible uses that it can be put to, in the wrong hands.

 

The good news is that allegedly 94% of these images were able to be removed when they were reported, but 6% still around is 6% too many in my opinion. Plus even those that were removed will still have been seen by others.

 

I know these statistics are specific to the UK, but I would be very surpised if similar countries such as the US and Australia haven't seen similar increases.

 

[AnonymousGuy]

Wouldn't be surprised if most of these reports are onlyfans chicks trying to use it to take down people sharing their premium pics.

[CarlBar]

Nice misleading title you got there.

 

That aside, whilst i hope they manage to catch those responsible, i think it also needs putting into some kind of perspective. The UK has a total population just shy of 70 million people. 2000 odd cases in a year whilst somthing we should allways be striving to lower isn't some epidemic. That actual rate of rapes in 2012 was just shy of 10 times higher, and the murder rate was around 1/3 of this, (The us murder rate is actually 50% worse in the same year for people from the US). It's not nice, it's not good, but it's not the biggest problem, or even as large a [problem as they're trying to make it out to be.

[Bombastinator]

I read an article which mentioned that they don’t know whether it’s a surge in activity or a surge in reporting.  There was for example a surge in rape reporting some time ago which didn’t necessarily mean there was necessarily more rape so much as that a greater percentage were being recorded.  This may be like that.  They’re receiving more reports.  Whether this means the activity is going up or the comfort level with reporting is going up or what combination of both.  The two are hard to differentiate.  Could be an increasing problem, could be exposure of an older problem, could be both. 

[SansVarnic]

Revenge Porn has been an issue for sometime now...its not right and I do not defend it so don't think I am downplaying it.

In some ways I agree with @Bombastinator more people at home bored means more people have time on their hands, discovering what is out there and reporting what is found. 

 

 

*edit I Almost Forgot

 

-= Topic moved to General Discussion =-

This is not discussing technology development or technology in general. 

[Bombastinator]

The article I read was BBC but for American audiences.  It seemed from the article that a majority of the new stuff was reporting of threats “we have pictures we can disseminate..” kind of stuff.  It was specific to britian. I don’t know how much change and in what manner there has been internationally.

[pythonmegapixel]

45 minutes ago, CarlBar said:

Nice misleading title you got there.

Nice unhelpful non-constructive criticism you got there.

 

In what way is the title misleading?

[Bombastinator]

5 minutes ago, pythonmegapixel said:

Nice unhelpful non-constructive criticism you got there.

 

In what way is the title misleading?

It’s got standard single point of information problems.  It’s one organization in one country. Doesn’t mean other countries aren’t experiencing similar stuff though it also doesn’t mean it does.  The title may (but only may) be over assumptive.  The article does make me interested in what other similar information may be out there. Implicitive  but not definitive.  

[Warin]

When you get pedantic about something as godawful as blackmail via non consensual porn, you run the risk of looking a bit like an asshole (No, I am not calling you an asshole ).  I get that you are concerned about sensationalism, but I guarantee that even one person facing this sort of bullshit is one person too many.  It isn't like there can only be concern over one type of sexual abuse/exploitation at a time.  It is good to bring as much attention to this as possible, because someone somewhere might think before sending sexually explicit content to others.  Because no one deserves the kind of bullshit that comes around when some asshole starts spreading it around.

[Teddy07]

I don´t want to be bothered with such topics when I read the "TECH news" section. I am surpised that the moderator did not close it.

[WereCatf]

10 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

I don´t want to be bothered with such topics when I read the "TECH news" section. I am surpised that the moderator did not close it.

As far as I know, topics not being to your liking isn't a reason for mods to close a thread.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

15 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

I don´t want to be bothered with such topics when I read the "TECH news" section. I am surpised that the moderator did not close it.

On what grounds can they close this thread? Meets the sub-forum posting guidelines and on the surface, doesn't seem to violate any Community Standards. It's a pretty important topic in my opinion, regardless of whether or not it's just sensationalized by the current pandemic. 

[Bombastinator]

36 minutes ago, Warin said:

When you get pedantic about something as godawful as blackmail via non consensual porn, you run the risk of looking a bit like an asshole (No, I am not calling you an asshole ).  I get that you are concerned about sensationalism, but I guarantee that even one person facing this sort of bullshit is one person too many.  It isn't like there can only be concern over one type of sexual abuse/exploitation at a time.  It is good to bring as much attention to this as possible, because someone somewhere might think before sending sexually explicit content to others.  Because no one deserves the kind of bullshit that comes around when some asshole starts spreading it around.

Not sure who “you” was in this case, but assuming it’s me I’m afraid pedantic is my only gear really.  I actually can’t really talk any other way about anything complicated unless I’ve got an old saying or some such to quote.  I don’t disagree.  It’s a foul behavior.  There is a lot of evil in the world.

[Bombastinator]

18 minutes ago, Teddy07 said:

I don´t want to be bothered with such topics when I read the "TECH news" section. I am surpised that the moderator did not close it.

It’s perhaps marginal except the whole thing is a result of recent tech.  Revenge porn wasn’t a doable thing even 15 years ago.

[Trik'Stari]

4 hours ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Wouldn't be surprised if most of these reports are onlyfans chicks trying to use it to take down people sharing their premium pics.

 

I will never not use this when I see the chance lol.

[StDragon]

This is proof positive that the Flynn effect is BS. You have to be a blithering idiot to have compromising pictures taken of yourself, and even more so in the hands of someone else.

[CarlBar]

4 hours ago, pythonmegapixel said:

Nice unhelpful non-constructive criticism you got there.

 

In what way is the title misleading?

 

The title would generally be considered as referring to a rise in rape porn rather than revenge porn. I think most would agree there's a pretty large difference in severity between the two.Not that either is in any way acceptable but there is a big difrance in how they'll be viewed.

[CarlBar]

29 minutes ago, StDragon said:

This is proof positive that the Flynn effect is BS. You have to be a blithering idiot to have compromising pictures taken of yourself, and even more so in the hands of someone else.

 

So you'd never take pictures of your wife, or vice versa. Thats what a lot of this is (usually after a bad breakup), AFAIK. The rest is school and college kids in one of their first relationships.

[WereCatf]

49 minutes ago, CarlBar said:

The title would generally be considered as referring to a rise in rape porn rather than revenge porn.

Generally? Do you have some statistics? I'll chime in as someone who immediately understood that it was about revenge-porn. Yes, I think the wording of the title is a bit odd and I would personally have just used the them "revenge-porn", but, at the same time, I'm not sure you're in a position to make such sweeping claims on how people interpret the current one.

[Fatih19]

31 minutes ago, WereCatf said:

Generally? Do you have some statistics? I'll chime in as someone who immediately understood that it was about revenge-porn. Yes, I think the wording of the title is a bit odd and I would personally have just used the them "revenge-porn", but, at the same time, I'm not sure you're in a position to make such sweeping claims on how people interpret the current one.

I actually thought it was about rape-porn when I first saw it, but that's an anecdote.

[piratemonkey]

10 minutes ago, Caroline said:

Don't make porn if you don't want it to be on the internet.

Out of context (which is how I read it) is pretty funny. 

But revenge porn is kinda dumb ngl. It's like filming yourself while you murder someone, or whole you rob a store. Protip, don't film yourself when committing crimes. ESPECIALLY RAPE, which is what this is. Smh people are dumb. I also agree with @Bombastinator and @SansVarnic about how there's more eyes on this type is stuff and thus will be reported more

[piratemonkey]

4 hours ago, Teddy07 said:

I don´t want to be bothered with such topics when I read the "TECH news" section. I am surpised that the moderator did not close it.

If this story makes you uncomfortable, get off the internet. There's references everywhere. No where does it say in the CS that if someone posts something you disagree with it can be removed. Also, this is related to tech in a way. It's on the internet, and internet culture gets grouped in a way with tech, and other categories that are allowed on this forum. 

Also also, report something if you think doesn't belong. If it doesn't get removed or lock in half an hour, it's not objectionable and is allowed

[WereCatf]

13 minutes ago, piratemonkey said:

Protip, don't film yourself when committing crimes. ESPECIALLY RAPE, which is what this is.

No, revenge-porn is not rape-porn. Revenge-porn is typically spurned spouses and/or girlfriends/boyfriends/whatnotfriends posting compromising pictures/videos of you on the Internet without permission, so as to shame you and harass you. It's pretty normal for e.g. couples to film themselves having sex and then this aforementioned spurned person may post clips of such acts on the Internet, if the relationship ends.

 

There are also lots of people who film their girlfriends/boyfriends/whatnot without them knowing about it and those clips are even more likely to end up on the Internet as revenge-porn once the relationship comes to a halt.

[piratemonkey]

1 minute ago, Caroline said:

It's not rape porn, the article doesn't say that, it says it's non-consensual pornography not non-consensual sex, those are 2 different things.

 

Just now, WereCatf said:

No, revenge-porn is not rape-porn. Revenge-porn is typically spurned spouses and/or girlfriends/boyfriends/whatnotfriends posting pictures/videos of you on the Internet without permission, so as to shame you and harass you. It's pretty normal for e.g. couples to film themselves having sex and then this aforementioned spurned person may post clips of such acts on the Internet, if the relationship ends.

Doh. I need to read more thoroughly next time, and use my brain. But it's still bad

[Bombastinator]

23 minutes ago, piratemonkey said:

Out of context (which is how I read it) is pretty funny. 

But revenge porn is kinda dumb ngl. It's like filming yourself while you murder someone, or whole you rob a store. Protip, don't film yourself when committing crimes. ESPECIALLY RAPE, which is what this is. Smh people are dumb. I also agree with @Bombastinator and @SansVarnic about how there's more eyes on this type is stuff and thus will be reported more

I don’t know whether it’s an increase instance or an increase in notice, or to what degree of either.   All Im saying is the data doesn’t say.  It could well be increasing in instance.  Something has increased.  It likely bears more looking into.