A revenge porn website where users trade sexual images of women and girls without their consent has a “Canberra” section featuring the images and personal information of Canberra school girls, the ABC News reports.
Users can request photos of girls from particular schools via the site, which was blocked a year ago but has since re-emerged on a foreign server, meaning it cannot be easily removed.
eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant told ABC News that setting up an image-based site like the one in question was not difficult and that avoiding legal issues was just a matter of its owners harnessing the right technology. “We’re playing a little game of whack-a-mole,” she said.
Inman Grant also said eSafety was working together with police to remove the content.
“We also have to remember that these are Australian boys and men that are taking these images and sharing them like they’re footy cards,” she told ABC News.
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“We need to start having that discussion with kids about respect and responsibility and empathy and have them really think about the devastation it’s causing to these girls by trading them in this careless way.”
Last year the ACT Legislative Assembly added an amendment to the territory’s Crimes Act to address revenge porn, making it illegal to spread or threaten to spread an “intimate image”.
Anyone affected by revenge porn can lodge a report with the Office of the eSafety Commissioner. A further guide on how to take action can be found here.