Almost one in 10 Australians admit to engaging in revenge porn and other forms of sexual abuse involving images, researchers said Monday.
Nine per cent of Australians had taken a nude or sexual photo or video of someone else without their consent, while more than six per cent had shared or distributed one, researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) said.
More than 4,200 people aged 16 to 49 were questioned for the RMIT survey into revenge porn, the term used to describe when jilted partners share embarrassing sexual photos or videos online.
Chief investigator Nicola Henry said image-based abuse was much more than revenge porn.
“Image-based abuse is a complex and diverse problem, and this is the first time we have been able to quantify the perpetration of it among a large sample of Australian adults,” she said in a statement.
“Perpetration can range from upskirting and downblousing to a partner out to get revenge after a break up by sharing or threatening to distribute images.”
The survey found lesbian, gay and bisexual people were more likely than heterosexuals to engage in image-based sexual abuse and that men were significantly more likely than women to self-report being a perpetrator.
It also found many respondents held “victim blaming-attitudes.”
The study is to be published in the journal Computers in Human Behavior next month.
Last year, Australia passed laws mandating up to seven years in prison for the non-consensual sharing of intimate images online, as well as civil penalties of up to 525,000 Australian dollars (375,000 US dollars) for corporations and 105,000 dollars for individuals.
Dpa
