Stop focusing on the victim

Whether we want to accept it or not, sharing intimate photos between two people occurs more often than we think.

We live in a very comparative society where the need to show off material possessions sometimes isn’t enough to gain the attention and likes that we so desire. Even those who society have labelled as beautiful, successful, popular and wealthy, also have self-esteem challenges and they too feel the need to sometimes share the most intimate of photos. It should be noted that not all cases end up with an ill-fate. There are legitimate cases where a digital romantic relationship remains private and the two parties end up sharing a life together. However, the topic being discussed here is when trust is disguised under a false pretense of affection leading to the ultimate exploitation of one of the parties involved.

It is not always the situation where the person who shared the photos (victim) initiated the act but instead one where the recipient of the photos (cyberbully) who requested such photos in the first place. 

Often the first photo may be playful and not as embarrassing, but the tactics used by the cyberbully to coerce the victim into sending more exploitative photos is often very successful. In many instances, the cyberbully proceeds to share the photos with other people without the knowledge and or consent of the victim. This often occurs when the victim takes up public office, achieves personal and or professional milestones or when the victim attempts to cut ties with the cyberbully and stops sending more photos.

Various texts have referred to this activity as nonconsensual image sharing or image-based sexual assault however we may be more familiar with the term revenge porn. Regardless of the terms used, victims of this form of exploitation share symptoms similar to victims of physical sexual assault and as such, this virtual sexual assault needs to be treated with the the same type of legislative power as its physical counterpart. The one distinguishing factor here is that one act can be controlled and kept within a small circle of people in a controlled geographic area, whereas the other act can be experienced and shared, over and over, among tens of thousands of people, with no geographic boundaries.

CyberSafeTT has become an avenue for victims to share their plight in the hope of getting some form of redress as the present system has some flaws. CyberSafeTT can however only act as the link between the victim and the protective services. Victims often reach the stage of wanting to report a situation when the cyberbully becomes aggressive and threatens to release the exploitative photos to the public. The current laws require a victim to first make a report of a cyberbully act to their local police station before it can be reviewed by the Cyber Crime Unit. Some of these local reports are often trivialized and not given any priority and in some cases, the victim is further shamed while making the report. When avenues to address this situation is another point of shame and humiliation, the victim becomes more depressed and this can lead to other mental disorders, physical harm such as cutting and often thoughts of suicide. Our current laws can address this under invasion of privacy and also under reputational damage although some of the acts experienced by the victim should be categorized under more serious areas in the offenses against the person act. 

When the victims’ most intimate photos are shared over and over again, how can they feel safe going about their daily duties not knowing if the stranger next to them has seen that personal photo of them? They have essentially lost control over their own bodies and often believe there is no way to reclaim that sense of privacy.

As a society, we need to adapt to the reality that technology would always be used in good and bad ways. 

We should not judge the victim while we continue to completely ignore the cyberbully.

When a shopkeeper gets robbed, do we chastise them for not having proper security or do we share videos of the robbery with the hope that the criminals get caught?

You might not be a victim of it, but we can reduce the effect of ones who victimize others.

Do not ignore the possibility that one day, a photo being shared may just have a familiar face.