(Trinidad Guardian) More and more cases of revenge porn are gaining the attention of the police, but lawmen still have little power unless necessary adjustments are made to legislation which can deal with the issue.
Sgt Dale Joseph of the Police Service’s Cyber Crime Unit said such incidents were becoming more and more prevalent on social media especially when relationships turn sour and urged people to be cautious when sharing nude photos or videos.
He was speaking at the weekly police press briefing at the Police Administration Building, Port-of-Spain, on Wednesday.
“Our culture in Trinidad…we are seeing a lot of bacchanal…in the sense that people get into relationships and they share sensitive data online and when the relationship ends the aggrieved party wants to take revenge.
“So sensitive videos and photos and other content would be shared online so you are seeing a lot of those types of reports coming to us unfortunately,” Joseph said.
He called on people to be cautious when sharing such intimate information as one of the dangers of social media was once something was posted on it was virtually there forever.
On whether such “revenge methods” by adults were in fact branded as a crime Joseph said: “The present legislation does not see it as a criminal offence just yet but hopefully legislation would evolve to the point where we could treat it as a criminal offence.”
Precedent case
In October last year West Indies cricketer Lendl Simmons was ordered to pay $150,000 in compensation for leaking sexually explicit photographs of Therese Ho, an account executive with whom he had an extra-marital affair.
During the sexual relationship between Simmons and Ho, several photographs were taken by them. Some of these photographs depicted Ho nude and two of the photographs depicted her engaged in fellatio with Simmons. After their relationship ended some of the photos were allegedly shown to other people, and as a result, Therese Ho filed action, seeking an injunction restraining Simmons from disseminating the photos.
But if perpetrators were caught with child pornography images and videos then they would face the consequences, including being jailed, Joseph said.
Beware of online scams
And while Christmas season represented the period with the highest level of commercial activity it was also a season where citizens were also most vulnerable as there have been several online scams, warned Joseph.
“A lot of persons get caught in a lot of online lottery scams as we are seeing more and more social media platforms enabling video chats and persons become involved in questionable behaviour online, meaning that they have intimate relationships with persons online and they are extorted for cash,” Joseph said.
He said members of the unit have also been going to secondary schools in particular to lecture to students regarding the dangers of social media as there have been some incidents involving students who become involved in intimate behaviour.
“Prevention is better than cure and sometimes it takes a very long time to find out who a suspect is, especially if you’re dealing with a suspect in a different jurisdiction,” Joseph said.
He added that citizens were now accessing the internet in a variety of ways to undertake increasingly complexed range of transactions.
“As the number of people using mobile phones, Wi-Fi, computer game consoles and other devices access the internet continues to grow the need for better cyber security across these devices becomes increasingly important.
“The Police Service has observed the fast rate of technological advancement, coupled with an increase in technology-based nefarious activities,” Joseph added.
