Study: 1 in 25 Americans threatened with ‘revenge porn’

Daily Herald 17 December 2016
One in 25 Americans has been threatened with or faced a vicious form of digital harassment in which explicit images are shared online without the subject’s consent, according to a report released Tuesday by think tank Data & Society and the Center for Innovative Public Health Research.

This kind of non-consensual image sharing, commonly known as “revenge porn,” has made headlines in recent years. But there had been little data on how widespread this type of harassment is until this new report, which was based on a telephone survey of more than 3,000 U.S. Internet users age 15 or older.

A US study has found LGB people are more than four times likely to be the victims of revenge porn than straight people. Four per cent of the general population have been victims of revenge porn, but this increases to 17 per cent in the gay community. The study notes: “Among internet users who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (LGB), 15% say someone has threatened to share a nude or nearly-nude photo or video of them without their permission, a far higher rate than among heterosexual internet users (2%).
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