Revenge Porn is Rising on Social Media: What Can Be Done?

If you’re an internet freak and are aware of common internet dangers, then you must have heard of revenge porn. The presence of pornographic material is becoming increasingly common on the internet. It is extremely challenging for parents to keep their kids and teens away from porn stuff online.

Becoming accidentally exposed to or consciously opening pornographic sites and apps on the internet is one thing and becoming a victim of revenge porn is another. Revenge porn has taken the internet by storm.

Revenge porn on social media is thriving day by day. Every other teen girl is becoming a victim of it. Before your teen girl becomes the target of revenge porn, be sure to take some urgent safety measures. In this post, we will talk everything about revenge porn, how your teen can get away with it if they are a victim, and how you can protect your teen from this type of internet danger.

What is Revenge Porn?

Revenge porn involves sharing of private, intimate, sexually explicit materials including photos and videos of another person. This sharing of private content is mostly done without the consent of that person. People engage in revenge porn only to cause distress or embarrassment to the other person or to blackmail them.

Revenge porn can happen both online and offline; intimate stuff is either shared on various online platforms including social media and instant messaging apps or in a traditional way. For example, someone can upload and share the other person’s intimate pictures on the internet or social media, share them via text messages and emails, or show the physical or electronic images to someone.

In most cases, the sexually explicit photos and videos of someone are exposed to get revenge from a partner after a break-up. This can have a devastating effect on the victims and have a deep impact on their mental health and wellbeing.

In 2015, revenge porn was declared a specific offense in England and Wales. Those caught in the act of revenge porn need to face a maximum sentence of two years behind bars.

What Can Your Teen Do If They Are a Victim?

Like we mentioned earlier, revenge porn can have a devastating effect on the victim’s mental health and wellbeing. Victims of revenge porn face long-term consequences because once their intimate photos and videos are out, nobody tends to forget that incident, and thus their reputation is ruined forever.

No parent would want their teen to become a victim of revenge porn. But have you ever placed yourself in the position of a parent whose teen has been subject to this vicious cycle? What would you do if you find out your teen’s intimate photos somewhere on the internet? How would you tackle it?

Before understanding how to tackle this situation, it is important to realize what could be done if your teen becomes a victim of revenge porn.

If your teen is a victim of revenge porn, here’s what they can do:

• Keep the evidence with them. Your teen can take screenshots of messages or posts as evidence against the offender.  
• Your teen should never engage or retaliate with the offender in any case.
• Your teen should immediately report the revenge porn incident to the police either through a phone call or the internet.
• Tell your teen that they should not be embarrassed to report the incident. Nobody will judge them and the authorities will handle their case sensitively.
• They need to report it to the website where the compromising pictures or videos have been uploaded.

How Can Parents Help Teens Deal with Revenge Porn?

It is the parent’s responsibility to make sure teens have a safe experience on the internet. When they are using several social media and instant messaging apps, they are bound to come across internet dangers. Revenge porn is another internet danger that you, as a parent, also need to be aware of.

If you do not want your kid to become a victim of revenge porn, here’s what you need to do:

• Make sure your teen has enabled all the privacy settings on the social media and instant messaging apps that they are using. With the right privacy settings, your teens can stay away from strangers and not have conversations with them.
• Ensure that your teen has enabled two-factor authentication in all of their social media and email accounts and has set a strong password for each account.
• Install a monitoring or parental control app on your teen’s smartphone and keep an eye on their online activities. Mobistealth is the best monitoring app that helps you stay updated on your online and smartphone activities. With the Mobistealth monitoring app, you can monitor all incoming and outgoing text messages, photos, and videos exchanged on all the social media and messaging apps your teen is using.
• Educate your teens about internet dangers, especially the dangers of WhatsApp because, apparently, most revenge porn incidents take place on this platform. Besides revenge porn, your teen should know about cyberbullying, online predating, and sexting. They should also know how to tackle these dangers.
• Do not let your teens spend too much time on smartphones, especially when they are in their bedrooms. Your teens should not be allowed to use the digital device in any area of the house where you can’t reach.
• Turn off the WIFI at night to prevent your teens from using social media before bedtime.
• Set some basic technology rules at home so your teen can maintain discipline in their life.
• Teach your teen to never share their intimate photos or videos with anyone on the internet. They should not even trust their best friends or boyfriends/girlfriends with intimate content.

Revenge porn is real and it is thriving on social media. Unfortunately, nothing much is being done about it. Parents should take some necessary safety measures to keep teens safe from this harmful online danger. Even if your teen falls prey to revenge porn, they shouldn’t feel embarrassed about it and report it immediately.

With proper communication, guidance, and internet monitoring, you can keep your teens safe from becoming a victim of revenge porn. We would highly recommend using a monitoring app to frequently monitor your teen’s instant messages and text messages. WhatsApp monitoring can be done to find out whether or not your teen is sharing intimate content with the other person.