There has been a "worrying rise" in revenge porn, says Minister for Women Michaelia Cash. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen The most common form of abuse is offensive language, followed by malicious lies being spread online, being sent unwanted sexual content, and having embarrassing photos posted without the subject's permission. Perpetrators are most likely to be strangers. RMIT's Anastasia Powell said her study had uncovered significant levels of image-based sexual abuse. One in 10 adults has had a nude or semi-nude picture of them taken without their permission. The same proportion has had a sexually explicit image of them sent to others without their permission, or had someone threaten to publicly share such an image. "It's the first Australian study to show the prevalence of this kind of image-based abuse," Dr Powell said. "Interestingly, both men and women report this is happening to them in the same numbers." La Trobe's Nicola Henry said the harm was magnified by the massive potential audience for revenge porn. There are now underground revenge porn web sites where people trade non-consensual images for bitcoins.

"A lot of women have no idea that it is going on," Dr Henry said. The researchers said there needed to be better legal protection for victims of digital abuse and harassment. Police are particularly keen for a specific revenge porn offence, as existing laws are too broad to be confident of a conviction. "Technology and its uses are advancing quicker than the law can keep up," Dr Powell said. "We need a revenge porn law, reflecting that this is happening to one in 10 Australians. It's a really important gap." She also called for consistency in state and federal laws so victims don't fall through gaps, depending on where they are located.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has said he is "certainly open" to making a specific legal provision for revenge porn. "To threaten a woman ... with publication of intimate photographs is thoroughly unacceptable conduct," he said when announcing $100 million in funding to fight domestic violence. The COAG advisory panel on reducing violence against women is considering whether current laws are adequate to guard against technology-facilitated abuse. The federal government is waiting for the panel to report back by the end of the year before it acts on revenge porn. Minister for Women Michaelia Cash said there had been a "worrying rise" in such incidents. "Perpetrators are now using technology to track, harass, blackmail and abuse their victims in ways that we have not previously seen - this includes the worrying rise in incidents of what is known as 'revenge porn'," she said. But she said technology could be also be used to help, not harm, and "the recently announced Women's Safety Package had numerous examples of how technology can be utilised to assist victims of domestic violence".



Police and sexual assault services have identified three "highly concerning" trends in relation to image-based sexual abuse. Aside from revenge porn, sextortion is also occurring, where a perpetrator uses sexual images to coerce a victim into unwanted sexual conduct. In addition, police warned sexual assaults are being photographed or filmed, and then used to intimidate or silence the victim. This "substantially" increases the impact of abuse.

Domestic violence support services said technology was enabling perpetrators to harass their victims 24/7. This includes persistent unwanted contact via texts, emails and social media, bombarding victims with threats, and installing stalker apps on the victim's device without their knowledge to monitor their communications and location. Women are much more vulnerable to sexual harassment online than men, experiencing it more often, and more likely to be very upset by the abuse. Men are more likely to receive pornographic material, while women are more likely to receive unsolicited sexual images such as "dick pics". They are also more likely than men to act to stop the harassment, by telling the perpetrator to stop, changing their profile settings, leaving the site or turning off their device. "Given the extent that technology is embedded in our everyday lives, the idea that women might be withdrawing from online participation because of harassment is very concerning," Dr Powell said.