Revenge Porn: Australia Launches National Portal To Help Victims

Revenge porn — the non-consensual distribution of explicit personal videos and images online — is a persistent issue in which it is tough for victims to get justice. While technology companies such as Facebook, Google and Microsoft have made attempts to resolve it, there is still the lack of actionable legal remedies.

The Australian government has put forth its own endeavor to help out victims — the government has set up a national portal where victims can file their complaints. The portal, currently in its pilot phase, has a section of the website dedicated to offering support which details how victims or their friends and family can find support. The pilot phase will be used to provide the team with the portal time to examine and prepare for the volume and complexity of such problems.

It also offers legal information for the victim — the laws regarding revenge porn and how a victim can get in touch with a lawyer.

The Australian government announced the portal last year and has spent $4.8 million in funding it, according to the Australian Minister for Communications, Mitch Fifield.

There are already such portals available — California already has one, but Australia endeavor is the first national one. It is also more detailed than the one California offers. It has information on how victims can collect evidence on the violation of their privacy, report image to tech companies so that they can take such content down from their platforms and also, how to use “specialized technology” on how to track down the image across the internet.

According to a 2016 report by the U.S. Data and Society Research and the Center for Public Health Research, one in 25 Americans has been a victim of revenge porn. Recent incidents include thousands of marines posting such content in Facebook groups and Rob Kardashian putting out such content of his ex-girlfriend Blac Chyna. The Australian average is even higher with one in five persons being a victim of revenge porn.

According to Mary Anne Franks, who leads the Cyber Civil Rights initiative, the tool is one of the best available currently.

“We at CCRI do the best we can with limited resources and volunteer staff to provide support and guidance on this issue, but there is a world of difference between the efforts of a small nonprofit and those of an official government entity. This portal demonstrates that the Australian government has made this issue a priority - a remarkable statement in itself - and has dedicated real energy and resources to supporting victims. I wish that other countries, particularly ours, would follow suit”

The official launch of the tool is expected to be held next year.

However, such tools can only assist victims and not deter the perpetrator from posting such content online. Unless federal laws are enacted to dissuade people from posting such content, the solution might not be in sight.