Victims of 'revenge porn' websites fight back

The victims of revenge porn websites - where people reveal personal information about ex-lovers and others and post nude and pornographic photographs without their knowledge - are calling on state and federal lawmakers to ban the practice.

California recently passed legislation that makes it illegal for people to post some nude images online without the consent of the people pictured.

"The drive behind these websites is completely malicious," said Holly Jacobs, founder of EndRevengePorn.org, a national campaign of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and herself a victim of the websites. "It is this day and age's Scarlet Letter - it is just a way for (people) to get back at their exes for breaking up with them or cheating on them."

In Ohio, hundreds of people are using the Internet to punish and humiliate ex-lovers and others by posting nude and pornographic photos and videos of them along with their personal information, such as their names, ages, home addresses and how to contact them. A majority of the victims are women.

"Revenge porn" websites contain hundreds of explicit images of women from across southwest Ohio, and most images and profile pages have been viewed thousands of times by visitors to the sites.

Many of the area women featured on these websites told the Dayton Daily News they were unaware sexually-explicit images of them existed online, and most said they never dreamed private photos would be shared on the Internet for the purposes of hurting and humiliating them.

Read more of this story at www.mydaytondailynews.com.

About the Author