GREENSBORO, NC – Ask a room full of people about revenge porn and they may have an inkling of what the law says. Ask a room full of teenagers and they may not know anything about it.
WHAT IS REVENGE PORN?
In short, the General Assembly passed a “revenge porn” law which took effect in December of 2015. The law bans someone from sharing nude photos or videos of a person without their consent to coerce, harass, intimidate, humiliate or call financial loss to the victim. If the person is over 18, they’re charged with a felony. If the person is under 18, they could be charged with a misdemeanor the first time, but a felony for any repeat offenses.
Detective Patricia Wright, with Greensboro Police’s Special Victims Unit said the cases they see most often deal with exes.
“Boyfriends and girlfriends that have broken up and now there is a new boyfriend or girlfriend who goes through their phone and they find this video which makes them very mad and they post these images online to embarrass the other person, “explained Wright.
But, more and more, detectives are seeing teenagers getting into the act of posting revenge porn. One example includes friends taking videos or pictures without the other person’s consent and then posting them when they get into an argument.
“This is one of the more preventable crimes that we come across,” Wright said. “The police departments across the nation are inundated with these types of cases.”
REVENGE PORN VERSUS CHILD PORNOGRAPHY
Teenagers as young as 12 or 13 can be charged with revenge porn.
“Once they hit the magic age of 16, we start charging as adults. And what children don’t seem to realize is, once you are charged as an adult, this carries with you for the rest of your life.”
Wright said what might shock most teenagers is sharing sexually explicit images or videos or another teenager or child under the age of 18 falls into another criminal category.
“Any time you are producing and disseminating children under the age of 18, that is the production and dissemination of child pornography when they are exposed in sexually explicit manner,” Wright explained. “That would make it a felony and potentially put you on the list as a sex offender.”
College applications, future job prospects and even places to live could be affected by a child pornography conviction.
ONCE IT'S ON THE INTERNET- IT'S FOREVER
Wright said often times, teenagers use apps like Snapchat, which deletes a picture or video after a certain number of views or 24 hours, whichever comes first. But, the detective warns people to remember, once something is online, it’s forever.
“They’re not gone. They’re just gone from where you can see them,” said Wright. “We have very good rapport with these social media sites. Through court orders, we can get that information back even through Snapchat.”
Posting a video or picture under an anonymous name won’t help keep you safe either. Wright gave the example of a recent case in Guilford County, where fake Instagram accounts popped up, containing nude images of underage female students at local high schools.
The accounts had interesting profile names.
“336 Hoes, 901 Hoes, Eastern Hoes or Western Hoes, whatever school they were affiliated with or whatever area code they were affiliated with.”
With the help of the State Bureau of Investigation, the creators of the accounts were found, even though they used fake names and fake emails to register the accounts. The suspects, whose names were not released, were charged with the distribution of child pornography.
Wright also warned even though a picture is deleted, someone may have taken a screenshot.
“A year or two years from now it could show back up.”
CAN YOU PREVENT TEENAGERS FROM POSTING?
It can be a daunting task to keep track of what teenagers are doing on their phones. But, Wright said, it’s a necessity to keep them from ending up on the wrong side of the law.
“We can’t expect that we can put this in children’s hands and always expect for them to make the right decisions,” said Wright, who often gives presentations at high schools on online safety.
She said the first thing she hears from parents once their child is a victim or charged with a crime related to pornographic images, is ‘I had no idea.’
“Parents are typically unaware of what their children are doing online. They’re locked out of their children’s phones because they don’t know their passwords. They don’t know what apps their children are using or how those apps work.”
Wright encourages parents to check their child’s phone, learn about the apps they use and teach them about the harsh realities they could face if charged with a crime.
One helpful online tool for resources about internet safety is NetSmartz411.
