Because apparently lockdown wasn’t bad enough, we now have a revenge porn problem to deal with.
The U.K.-based Revenge Porn Helpline has reported a troubling increase in victims seeking help for cases of intimate image abuse since lockdown orders began in March, with cases reaching a monthly all-time high in April.
The spike in cases could be attributed to a variety of factors, Revenge Porn Helpline manager Sophie Mortimer told Dazed. As various other reports have revealed, lockdowns have exacerbated domestic and intimate partner abuse in many cases, which may include revenge porn. Meanwhile, said Mortimer, revenge porn cases may also be perpetuated by strangers. As lockdowns and social distancing protocols limit in-person interactions, many people are making new connections online. Unfortunately, as Mortimer told Dazed, “sometimes people are not who they say they are, so we have seen a rise in cases of sextortion.”
Moreover, while the Revenge Porn Helpline handles cases involving adults, revenge porn also affects underage victims. A massive sextortion ring made headlines earlier this month after the Daily Beast reported on Malaysian Playboy model Leng Yein’s role in uncovering a scam in which hundreds of thousands of photos of young women and underaged girls were published online without their consent.
The Revenge Porn Helpline saw 200 new cases in the four weeks following lockdown orders in the U.K., with one week in April seeing more cases than any one week since revenge porn first became a criminal offense back in 2015.
“I don’t think we’re seeing anything that’s particularly different to usual,” said Mortimer. “We’re simply seeing much more, which suggests that what we were seeing before was merely the tip of a very large iceberg.”
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