4% Of American Internet Users Have Experienced ‘Revenge Porn’ Says New Study
A recent study has revealed that 4% of American internet users have experienced “revenge porn”.
Revenge porn is defined as the showing, sending or posting of nude or nearly nude images, without the consent of the person in the photograph.
And the first study of its kind into the subject – entitled “Nonconsensual Image Sharing” and conducted by the Data & Society Research Institute and the Center for Innovative Public Health Research – found that a huge 10.4m internet users in the US have experienced revenge porn of some kind.
Broken down, this figure is made up of 3% of Americans who said someone had threatened to share nude or almost nude photographs of them, and 2% who revealed someone had posted this kind of content without being given permission.
Amanda Lenhart, a Researcher at the Data & Society Research Institute, said: “This is the first national data that can tell us how many people have been affected by actual or threatened non-consensual pornography.
“Non-consensual pornography can have a devastating and lasting impact on victims, so it’s vital that we understand how common this is and who is affected.”
Perhaps most concerning is the finding that the LGBTQ community are more likely than heterosexuals to be threatened by the posting of explicit content.
In terms of figures, a huge 15% of LGBTQ people said they had received threats and 7% said someone had actually shared photographs of them.
The study also found that both men and women are equally likely to have someone post explicit content of them.
Michele Ybarra, President and Research Director at the Center for Innovative Public Health Research said: “It’s incredibly important that we recognize that men are also victims of nonconsensual pornography.
“When we talk about victims of ‘revenge porn,’ male victims are often invisible—but hopefully this report will challenge us to think differently.”
Despite this, women are more likely to receive threats – in fact, 10% of women under the age of 30 admitted to being threatened with revenge porn.
To find out more about this study please click here.
