Is revenge porn her fault?

A girl taking a nude photo of herself from her phone.

Is releasing a persons nudes the right thing to do? Well in today's day and age, taking nudes is the new selfie to some as people are so used to getting things on the go in a blink of an eye. We are so used to rating things and people on social media that some of us out there evaluate others by what they have on themselves. But is taking nudes wrong? what are the effects of this? Are they to be blamed if it gets leaked to the public?

A news article released by the Guardian, UK on the 26th of June 2019, states that Revenge porn is a criminal offence by which a person's nudes/intimate picture is shared and distributed to the public without the persons consent and a person can be charged with a criminal offence if they are found guilty of doing this to a person. According to the news, revenge porn has already been made a criminal offence and unlike other cases, the identity of the victims can be kept a secret so that they cannot be identified just like those who are victims of sexual offenses.

According to Star News online, released on Wednesday the 11th of May 2016, they had mentioned that social media apps such as Snapchat for example, has made it really dangerous for people to send nude pictures of themselves, which is best known as nudes. According to Lisle Illinois, police officer Sean McKay claims that With the invention Snapchat, it has allowed people especially teens to communicate and chat with their friends on the go and whoever they are chatting with in an instant. He works closely with school officers in the school and has witnessed the consequences of this first hand. He claims that just being in possession of a persons nudes is a serious criminal offence and the person could be registered as a criminal sex offender especially when a person uses their nudes against a person as a means of getting what they want. What makes it even more dangerous is that there are apps like "SnapSave" and "Vault" that allows a person to save someones snapchat pictures without their knowledge.

On a serious note, this has also prompted a person to take their life just because her nudes were leaked to the public by a person who she trusted on the net. Her name was Amanda Todd from Port Coquitlam, British Columbia. According to a news article released by the New Yorker on the 12th of October 2012, she decided to release a YouTube video before deciding to end her life shortly after uploading it. She was chatting with someone she met online and he asked her to flash for him and to his request she did. The man soon took a picture of her breasts. He soon followed Amanda all around the internet and soon got a hold of her list of friends on Facebook and proceeded to send her nudes to everyone who she was close with. She was then bullied and ostracized by her peers and soon spiraled downwards into taking drugs just to cope with depression and anxiety. She tried to take her life many times but unfortunately managed to do so a week later.

In conclusion, there is nothing wrong with taking nudes for yourself however when sending it to someone else you need to be extra careful and you need to take precaution before doing so. You might think that it is just a picture however the person could use it against you for their own advantage and it can cost you everything in the end. Your reputation and life could be on the line.

Sources:

- https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/jun/26/revenge-porn-and-cyber-flashing-laws-go-under-review (Revenge Porn and 'cyber flashing' laws go under review- The Guardian)

- https://www.thestar.com.my/tech/tech-news/2016/05/11/the-naked-truth-about-sending-nudes/ (The naked Truth about Sending Nudes- The Star)

- https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-story-of-amanda-todd (The Story of Amanda Todd- New Yorker)