A recent survey has revealed an alarming statistic: One in five Australians has been subject to some form of online image abuse.
Researchers from RMIT University and Monash University surveyed 4,274 people between the ages of 16 and 49. They found far more people than they had expected — both men and women — had had sexual or nude images taken and/or distributed without their consent or otherwise used against them.
The statistical breakdown is stark. Twenty percent of respondents reported having images or video of a sexual nature taken without consent. Eleven percent had experienced this content being shared, and 9 percent had been threatened with release of private images. Though victims were equally likely to be men or women, the majority (54 percent) reported the perpetrator was a man. Women (39 percent) were more likely than men (30 percent) to be victimised by an intimate partner or former partner — and these figures only represent those who have discovered and reported the abuse. As such, these findings could merely be the tip of the image-abuse iceberg, researchers suggested.
Victims of image abuse have spoken out about how distressing it is to have intimate images shared without their consent. It violates an individual’s sexual autonomy and dignity, may cause major embarrassment and can be life altering.
Image abuse and webcam
It’s very hard to be completely anonymous on the internet, and performers operating “under the radar” are particularly vulnerable. Screen-captures can ”catch” performers during shows, and the screen caps can then be used against the performers. This can be extremely distressing, especially for performers who have kept their cam career away from their friends and family, as well as for those who have a day job alongside camming and may wish to keep the two aspects of their lives separate.
One way in which independent performers and models can fall victim to image abuse is via webcam remote hacking. For instance, the DarkComet RAT (Remote Access Trojan) has many features that enable it to act as a remote help tool; however, it can also be used maliciously. DarkComet is commonly used to spy on victims by key logging, password cracking or screen captures. It also can be used to gain control of a Windows operating system and allow hackers to remotely access your webcam — which allows the hacker to record all video and audio run through the cam. The stolen videos then can be used to blackmail or threaten performers or expose them to their families or day jobs.
What can you do?
Preventing image abuse is difficult. One of the steps you can take to ensure your webcam is safe from remote hacking is to change your default admin password on your router. This makes it a much tougher hack. Upholding your anonymity within your cam career also makes it much harder to target you for blackmail purposes.
Should you find yourself the victim of revenge porn, it’s vital you act quickly and:
- Issue a DMCA takedown notice to the site where the image or video is posted. More on DMCA here.
- Seek legal advice and file a report with your local authorities.
- Request Google remove the image from searches for your name. More on de-indexing here.
A great source for assistance is the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, which has a wealth of information for victims.
It’s great to see changes being made across both the social media world and the law in general to help control this sinister problem – however, there is still much work to be done before we see a decline in victim numbers.
Editor’s note: We have opted to discuss this issue in terms of “image abuse,” which is coincident with the researchers’ nomenclature. The more commonplace reference — “revenge porn” — conflates legal adult content (porn, webcam, etc.) with criminal acts of image abuse, among other conceptual limitations, and is thus inaccurate and incomplete.
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Katy Seymour is a super-sex-positive writer in the U.K. who believes kink is life. Email her at katy@ynotcam.com.
Oh, you think a RAT is something rare and wild? Here’s one of many videos on YouTube teaching peeps “how to.”
