Technology allows you check the weather before getting dressed, text a friend weekend plans, send your mom cute puppy pictures and ruin someone’s reputation at the click or tap of a few buttons.
On Jan. 28, a San Diego State student allegedly posted nude photos of his ex-girlfriend on Instagram. The San Diego State Police Department investigated the claim and concluded that it was not an identifiable photo and therefore not a crime.
Revenge porn is defined as posting explicit pictures of someone online without their consent, this includes selfies. The act itself should be considered a crime whether the picture is identifiable or not.
Pornography is pornography; and if it is without the consent of those involved in the image, it should be illegal.
“Perpetrators of nonconsensual pornography seek to deprive people of their fundamental right to control access to their own bodies, and they will continue to do so as long as they believe they can do so with impunity,” associate professor of law at Miami University, Mary Anne Franks said.
According to the Los Angeles Times, California is one of the 13 states that have cyber-exploitation laws.
In California, revenge porn is considered only a misdemeanor, punishable by a maximum of six months and/or a $1,000 fine. However, if the victim is a minor and defendant has been previous convicted for revenge porn, the jail time and fine could be doubled.
This type of humiliation has become quite popular with the proliferation of smartphones and increases social media use.
Since social media is fairly new, it takes time for the law to the follow suit and protects those who are using it. Crimes like revenge porn and cyber-bullying have remained a gray area before legislation was available to combat it.
Since technology is always innovating, there will always be people hiding in the dark, waiting to exploit it and hurt others.
In accordance, not only the law has to stay active but the users do as well. When using technology, whether to be to send text messages or update a Facebook status, users need to be aware of how public and permanent their social media presences are.
But, using personal photos, sent in an intimate moment by someone who trusted the other’s privacy against them is inhumane.
“It’s the height of cruelty. By taking the most private, intimate things and making them public and using shame to publicly demean people. It works because of the way we judge women for having sex,” associate professor of women’s studies, Doreen Mattingly said.
How can you hate someone, you previously cared about, so much?
It is such a base and low act to humiliate someone for the entire world to see, robbing them of rights to their bodies, trust and sense of security.
Revenge porn isn’t taken seriously enough.
A McAfee study determined that 10 percent of ex-partners threaten to expose explicit photos of their ex online. Furthermore, those threats are carried out 60 percent of the time.
That is terrifying, seeing as sending nudes has become more common and can even be casual.
Some argue, if she didn’t want others to see it, she shouldn’t have sent or taken those photos in the first place. But, that kind of judgment is getting us nowhere.
The truth is, this can happen to anyone and can circulate the world wide web.
The internet, social media, smartphones, are all great inventions that have spurred many revolutionary actions and thoughts.
It’s truly mind bending to think that the very same tool used to aided the Egyptian Revolution is being misused to harm others and degrade women.
How can technology that can achieve such great milestones be used for something so vile?
With technology today, possibilities are endless, for good and for evil. Technology is what the users make of it and soon there will be sufficient laws to protect users and punish violators.
