For example, Pornhub and its parent company MindGeek are currently being sued by survivors of child sexual abuse for hosting videos of their exploitation (Learn more about how NCOSE is working on this lawsuit here). Platforms that allow user-uploads of pornography are replete with nonconsensually shared materials and even videos of child sexual abuse and sex trafficking. This leaves the platform rife with sexual exploitation. Reddit is one of the few big social media sites that still allows pornography on its site with Twitter being another. Reddit technically has a policy against nonconsensually sharing sexually explicit materials, yet this is largely ineffective in practice. Reddit Refuses to Enforce Policies that Would Stop Abuse Horrifically, there have been some high profile cases of young people dying by suicide as a direct result of having their intimate images shared online and the onslaught of further abuse and harassment that followed.ĭespite this, Reddit does little to stop this abuse from taking place. Needless to say, image-based sexual abuse has detrimental effects on victims, who report experiencing depression, anxiety, and PTSD as a result. There are also subreddits dedicated to “leaked” (aka stolen or nonconsensually shared) sexually explicit content from OnlyFans or Snapchat, and more. While some women may consent to the sharing of their explicit images in such fora, it is impossible to tell how many of these images are being shared nonconsensually-and Reddit has no metric to verify age or consent. One such subreddit, ‘ wife pic trading,’ set up in mid-2015 has nearly 250,000 members. Shockingly many subreddits are dedicated to men swapping explicit images, videos, and other materials of their wives and girlfriends. These are often specific to geographic locations, with users actively seeking images of women in a certain city or town. On Reddit, some subreddits exist with the sole intention of posting sexually explicit images of women and girls without their consent. Images are collected and traded online like olden day baseball cards. Unsurprisingly the majority of victims are women and girls and the perpetrators are men. In the US 1 in 8 social media users report being targets of this image-based sexual abuse, while the UK has seen a doubling of victims between 20. This puts them at an increased risk of being harassed and stalked both online and off. Very often the victim’s personal details such as their email address, social media accounts, phone number, and home address are posted alongside the images. In other instances, the sharing, or threat of sharing, intimate images are used to exploit victims, known as ‘ sextortion.’ Often victims do not know that their images have been shared online and find out in different ways. Image-based sexual abuse (IBSA) is a broad term that includes a multitude of harmful experiences, such as nonconsensual sharing of sexual images (sometimes called “revenge porn”), pornography created using someone’s face without their knowledge (or deepfake pornography), nonconsensual recording or capture of intimate nude images (to include so-called “upskirting” or surreptitious recordings in places such as restrooms and locker rooms via “spycams”), recording of sexual assault, and more. Reddit’s Policies and Practices Allow Image-based Sexual Abuse to Flourish on its Platform What is Image-Based Sexual Abuse? Just like that, an internet platform used by 52 million people per day becomes a predator’s paradise-a playground of overt misogyny, sexual abuse, and gender-based violence. On Reddit, people can just key in a topic or phrase like “NSFW” (not safe for work) and pull up thousands of subreddits. Some are used to advertise prostitution and potentially sex trafficking. There are subreddits dedicated to normalizing incest. Subreddits are also places where people share child sexual abuse materials (‘child pornography’), hardcore pornography, or image-based sexual abuse. Some are places where strangers come to seek and offer advice to each other.īut some have a much darker agenda. Some subreddits are funny some are dedicated fan pages to shows like Ted Lasso. Its users upload their own material-photos, videos, discussion topics, etc.-and can create what are called ‘ subreddits.’ These subreddits can be about anything, from cooking and gardening to extreme sport. People go on Reddit to exchange ideas, chat about shared interests, and meet new people online. It has 52 million daily active users with 4 million daily posts and a further 2 billion comments. As of 2021, it is worth $6 billion, doubling its 2019 worth. Reddit is one of the top 20 internet platforms in the world.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |