A 16-Year-Old Victim Of SG Tumblr Porn Shares Her Story

Gia was horrified when she discovered her uniform-clad 16-year-old self immortalised on a Singaporean porn blog hosted on Tumblr — known as ‘sggirlsfbt’.

Now 19, she shares her harrowing experience with us over the phone.

This is her story.

When I was 16 years old, in the midst of doing my ‘O’ levels, a friend of mine messaged me out of the blue saying,

I saw your photo on a Tumblr porn blog.

When I went online to look at it, I was shocked.

They had photoshopped my breasts until they were disgustingly huge — that picture alone had at least 300 shares.

Image courtesy of Gia Lim

That was the first time I found out that such things exist, and anyone could be a victim of it.

At first I didn’t think too much about it, but then I saw other girls’ pictures on the blog too.

I let the matter rest — since ‘O’ level exams were nearing and I didn’t want to distract myself.

A stranger stalked me home

But things quickly escalated, taking a turn for the worse.

After one of my papers, I realised to my horror that I was being stalked home.

I knew for sure when he followed me on my meaningless, purposeful detour.

When I confronted him, he lied, saying he worked there. Who was he kidding, I lived near a jungle for goodness sake.

I was so afraid I called my parents. The most we could do was file a police report, but that was about it.

The police said,

We can’t do anything because these kind of things happen a lot. We’ll try our best and get back to you.

They never did. Then I began receiving dubious friend requests on Facebook and and messages on my phone containing distasteful nudes.

Some people straight up said,

Suck my dick.

It’s a shame that I did not screenshot them as proof — but this shouldn’t trivialise my experience.

I knew I couldn’t let the matter slide anymore. My photos, my address, my phone number were out there in the hands of all these creeps.

It had to be someone who knew me.

And since the police could only do so much, I decided to take matters into my own hands.

I dug a little deeper

Upon some digging, I discovered that SG Tumblr Porn was not a single blog, but a community of users.

People would submit pictures of their raunchy fantasies about these girls via email to the owner of the blog, who then publishes these posts.

When I discovered who re-uploaded my pictures online without my consent, my heart sank.

It was a painful discovery that gave me closure, yet I sometimes wish I never found out who it was.

The one I never expected, the one I held so dearly to my heart: my best friend.

He emailed 60 pornographic blogs with my picture

Image courtesy of Gia Lim

Image courtesy of Gia Lim

He had actually emailed over 60 pornographic blogs with my pictures, my address, my school, where I went for tuition, the route I take to school, and my entire schedule.

It went on for two whole months, and I was completely oblivious to it.

He fabricated stories about me along with photoshopping my pictures – stolen from my Instagram account – saying I was giving ‘sexual favors to thirsty NS boys’.

Heck, I didn’t even know anyone doing National Service at that point in time.

Upon digging deeper, I realised he also took pictures of girls’ legs under the table as well.

I was traumatised. I never expected him to be like this.

My best friend betrayed me

He was sly like a fox.

When I confided in him about this, he pretended not to know anything and suggested other possible suspects who might have been behind it.

Little did I know, I was looking right into the eyes of the person who had stabbed me in the back.

When I first confronted him with evidence from my research, he persistently denied it.

But his cyber footprints didn’t lie.

He said,

It’s not me, it’s not me, it’s not me.

I can still hear his denial and desperation ringing in my head to this day.

You’re probably thinking — how could she have been so blind?

But I saw him as my friend and trusted him so much, updating him on every breakthrough I had with the investigation. Friends don’t betray each other, do they?

I filed a police report against him, but didn’t pursue legal charges.

Everyone around me said,

He’s still young and immature. Don’t ruin his chances for him in the future.

I agreed with my parents on this.

I didn’t want to blow this out of proportion.

I wanted to be the bigger person — and even if he didn’t deserve a second chance, I would give it to him.

I deserve basic respect

After that, I blocked him off all my social media.

I didn’t dare to leave my house for fear of being stalked.

I would avoid going to Dhoby Ghaut simply because he lived there.

I even gave up going to an astronomy lecture – an opportunity that I wouldn’t have passed up – simply because I knew he would be there.

My friends can attest to how many times I called them at 3am, crying and flying into panic attacks.

Toxic thoughts consumed me. I felt like it was my fault for being so naive and not seeing it coming.

I drifted away from my friends and isolated myself. Until today, I’m thankful they insisted on staying by my side.

Looking back, I shouldn’t have given up my life just because this happened.

This does’t define who I am, it wasn’t my fault and this wasn’t the It shouldn’t be like this.

Stop objectifying me

I can’t say I’ve fully gotten over this traumatic experience.

It took me awhile to realise that it’s not my fault when someone looks at me the wrong way.

Or that what I’m wearing is ‘part of the appeal’ so I should stay away from such clothes.

I may post selfies and my #ootds online, but that’s no invitation to sexually objectify me.

I may not be perfect, but I know I can expect the most basic, decent respect that a human being deserves.

The community behind ‘sggirlsfbt’ say,

We’re just appreciating girls for their beauty.

I think this is a ridiculous excuse.

Clearly, all that they’re doing is sexually objectifying girls, and uploading photos stolen from them.

To those who continue stealing pictures from others and writing grotesque descriptions about them, I hope you’re ashamed of your immature acts that continue to hurt innocent girls every day.

Dear other victims…

Don’t let the victim-shamers get to you — you did nothing wrong. You didn’t ‘ask for it’, neither did you ‘lure them in’.

You don’t have to change the way you use social media — it should be your outlet to express who you really are.

When something like this happens, please don’t keep it to yourself. Most people around you are more than willing to help.

This isn’t just about female empowerment — but empowering everyone to speak up.

Still, no matter what you wear or how you act, be prepared for people who will inadvertently sexualise you for it.

And when that happens, you gotta fight back.

You’re important too.

Own it girl.

A little more about Gia

Gia is a 19-year-old Singaporean who feels passionately about changing the way sexual harassment is often swept under the carpet in Singapore.

She hopes to bring more attention towards such cases of harassment by starting #minetoo — to combat societal apathy towards such issues.

Together with her friend Ashley – another victim of SG Tumblr porn – she’s starting a public log which collects anonymous narratives from men and women who have been sexually harassed in Singapore.

Watch Gia speak about her harrowing experience here:

Featured image from Gia and Tumblr.