ASIAN STORIES Porn, privacy and pain: How image-based abuse tears women's lives apart
By Raquel Carvalho
This is the first in a series of stories on image-based abuse supported by the Judith Neilson Institute’s Asian Stories project, in collaboration with The Korea Times, Indonesia’s Tempo magazine, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, and Manila-based ABS-CBN. Cat Thomas, Yon Sineat and Kong Meta contributed reporting. The piece contains descriptions of a sexual nature. This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing.
Laura*, an office worker from Hong Kong, recently found out that some of her most private moments had been circulating on the internet – for about a decade.
Thousands have been able to pry into her personal life through the screens of computers, mobile phones, and tablets.
“I was shocked,” she said. “To put it simply, an admirer found a video on a porn website and I was in the video. It was filmed secretly.”
Laura, who is now in her late 20s, only became aware a year ago about the existence of the footage –
when she was a university student.
“The film is 10 years old and yet he could still recognise me,” she said, referring to a work colleague who had been courting her for months. At first, he seemed concerned about her well-being, but his manner changed when Laura said she was not interested in a relationship with him.
“When I rejected him, he called me a slut,” she said. “He tried to blackmail me, to force me to be with him.”
Laura said he had threatened to leak the video on public forums and in a work WhatsApp group. At one point, he said he might even force her to have sex with him without using contraception. “He was out of control,” she said.
His threats have waned in recent months, but her fear remains.
Laura is among the thousands of people who have had their intimate photographs or videos published without their consent, leaving them entangled in a web of anxiety, stress and anger. While women are disproportionately impacted by
, men are also affected.
This Week in Asia’s six-month investigation into the extent of image-based abuse included interviews with 16 survivors in nine different locations across Asia and Europe. In this first part of a series, people from places such as
,
and
discuss their experiences of having former partners and acquaintances blackmail them and share their images online.
Our examination also found hundreds of videos on pornography websites labelled as featuring young girls or coerced women, with some even directly referencing rape.
While experts warn of the severe consequences of “normalising non-consent”, survivors are struggling to get their photos and videos removed from online platforms, with many Asian countries still lacking laws and adequate police procedures to tackle the issue.
More connected, more at risk
When the
hit last year, millions retreated to their homes – commutes to work ceased, restaurants and entertainment venues closed down, while social gatherings were limited or forbidden. It was as if a pause button had been hit in hundreds of cities around the world.
Behind closed doors, many turned to screens for work, relaxation, and intimacy in all its forms. Chatting apps, social media networks, and dating websites often became their only connection to the world and other people. But while access to technology helped bring families, friends and colleagues together, it also allowed for the growth of image-based sexual abuse.
The Asia-Pacific region has the world’s largest number of internet users, most of whom are men, according to the latest statistics. As of January, China and India topped the list with about 989 million and 624 million internet users respectively.
Maleka Banu, general secretary of women’s rights group Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, said the fact that more people had access to mobile phones and the internet had led to an increase in online sexual abuse across Asia.
It’s now “easier to target [women] online without any risks”, Banu said, adding that the potential humiliation faced by survivors was greater in virtual spaces – an image can go viral with a click and be seen by millions.
Image-based sexual abuse is defined by experts as non-consensually taking, sharing or threatening to distribute nude or sexually explicit photos and videos. This includes filming sexual acts; taking a picture under another person’s clothing; filming in changing rooms; and uploading intimate images to public online platforms.
From Hong Kong to Britain, advocates and statistics indicate that most of those who suffer image-based abuse are women. Former partners and acquaintances are often the main perpetrators, using intimate images to seek sex, reunion, or simply to damage the survivor’s reputation. This form of abuse has become known as revenge pornography – but experts say the term should be avoided as it fails to highlight the perpetrators’ full range of motivations and the impact on survivors.
Online sextortion is another common form of coercion, usually to obtain money or more images from victims. Men are often the targets of sextortion cases involving criminal groups.
An international study conducted by four scholars – including Anastasia Powell, lecturer in justice and legal studies at RMIT University in Australia, and Adrian J. Scott, senior lecturer in psychology at the Goldsmiths, University of London – found that one in three people in Australia, New Zealand, and Britain had experienced some form of image-based sexual abuse.
The research, published last year, also suggested that women tended to report greater negative impacts than men. Most survivors were targeted by people they knew, while sexually diverse groups and members of ethnic minorities seemed to experience higher victimisation rates. Previous studies had also shown higher rates of sexual violence and harassment against groups such as transgender, intersex and gender-queer people.
“There is little doubt that nude and sexual images are increasingly being used to coerce, threaten and abuse victims,” the study said. “These harms extend well beyond the vengeful actions of a jilted lover and cross over into perpetration of domestic and sexual violence, stalking, bullying and sexual harassment.”
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