How does one commit revenge porn and how you can prevent and protect your child from it

1. The victim may themselves share their image with the perpetrator or consent to 'getting clicked' by the perpetrator. This may later be misused as revenge porn material. Most of the time, we get to see nude/semi-nude images which are used as revenge porn material. This may be a consequence of sharing images or consenting to being photographed in a compromising position.

2. The harasser may also use profile pictures or any other picture of the victim. In some cases, no pictures may be used at all and the harasser may use text to show that the victim is of loose morals.

3. In the first case, I often get to see a direct connection between sexting, revenge porn, and sextortion as the pictures sent in good faith may be used as revenge porn material or may also be used for sextortion, to threaten the victim in lieu of money or more nude/semi-nude pictures.

About the victim

As a result of the recent obsession with selfies among teenagers, they are more liable to fall victim to revenge porn. A teenager may be targeted by their jealous classmates, their ex-boyfriend, or even an unknown friend on social media who may be victimizing them because they stopped communicating with them when they realised the dangers of online relationships. Often, teenagers get to know they are being victimized when the harasser starts spreading their pictures (morphed or otherwise) among their friends on social media platforms or tags them in the pictures, or sends them a link.

Here are certain tips on how to protect teenagers from falling victim to revenge porn.

How to prevent it

1. As parents, you need to control what pictures your child shares on social media. Images containing only the child (and no one else) should not be posted because these images can be misused by perpetrators. It is better to post group photos or photos showing children with adult guardians and caregivers. Similarly, they must also be made aware of the risks involved in sharing images digitally.

2. In case your child has shared their picture with strangers, do not reach out to strangers and demand they delete it from their device. This act may create more problems. Instead, try to find out the history of communication. Neither the Protection Of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO), nor the Information Technology Act, 2000 (amended in 2008), nor the Indian Penal Code define and recognize revenge porn as a separate offense. But POCSO can definitely help if the communication history shows that the child was contacted by the stranger for grooming or was being stalked or the image was taken as a part of grooming. S.11 and S.12 of the POCSO Act may help in such cases.|

In the unfortunate circumstance when your child has fallen victim to revenge porn, here are a few things you can do.

How to help cope with it

1. In case of revenge porn victimization, parents must not hesitate to contact the police. Ask your teenager, if there was any indication in the communication with the harasser that she was being used or threatened. I have seen that many victims were told by their harassers that the pictures will be uploaded to XXX sites or porn sites. Also, ask them if they were specifically asked to send nude/semi-nude pictures. POCSO offers provisions for punishing offenders who use photographs of children for pornographic purposes, even if not for revenge porn.

2. In case, pictures have been captured without consent and are being used to create revenge porn content, (including bathing pictures, images taken from odd angles, and images of private body parts) one may refer to S.67B (punishment for using the child for creating, producing, etc. of child pornography) and 66E (punishment for infringement of privacy) of the Information Technology Act, 2000(Amended in 2008) read with S.354C IPC (voyeurism) and S.13 & 14 of the POCSO Act. Also, the Indian Penal Code offers provisions for criminal intimidation (S.503), defamation (S.499), or harming the modesty of women (S.509). All these laws can be used to address the issue.

3. In case your child is being harassed on a social media platform in relation to revenge porn, you must at once report the matter to the social media group concerned. They are duty-bound to take it down and take precautionary action to restrict the circulation of such images in the future. If they fail, you must consider taking the social media group to court for failing to take down the content.

We, as parents, must understand that acting rationally will work best when addressing issues of revenge porn. This will also encourage the child not to take drastic measures because they are embarrassed by the issue.