When young people
upload 'sexy' images online to share with friends, 88% are stolen and reused on
'parasite' websites. When young people upload 'sexy' images online to share with friends, 88%
are stolen and reused on 'parasite' websites.
Children whose 'sexted' images
are stolen in this way may never be able to get them back - and victims
describe being 'haunted' by images that are shared without their consent.
A
study by Childnet and the Internet Watch Foundation analysed 12,224 images
uploaded to websites and social networks - and found that 10,774 of these had
been 'stolen' and reused on other websites.
One victim, whose image had been
'shared' by parasite websites, said, '“I came to regret posting photographs of
myself naively on the internet and tried to forget about it, but strangers
recognized me from the photographs and made lewd remarks at school. "I
endured so much bullying because of this photograph and the others...I was
eventually admitted for severe depression and was treated for a suicide
attempt.”
The news came in the wake of the high-profile case of Amanda Todd, who
committed suicide after a cyber-bully used an explicit image of her to threaten
and torment her. The 'parasite' websites, which share these images do so
without consent. As a result, it can be impossible to 'delete' an image after
it has been uploaded.
Susie Hargreaves, CEO of the Internet Watch Foundation, said: “This
research gives an unsettling indication of the number of images and videos on
the internet featuring young people performing sexually explicit acts or
posing. “It also highlights the problem of control of these images - once an
image has been copied onto a parasite website, it will no longer suffice to
simply remove the image from the online account. “We need young people to
realise that once an image or a video has gone online, they may never be able
to remove it entirely.”
Yahoo News
Please share
No comments:
Post a Comment