Consider the following scenarios:

• One partner in a couple ends a relationship and later finds that nude pictures taken by his or her ex-partner are posted on the Internet without permission.

• Explicit photos or audio or video recordings of sex acts are taken without consent and later used to harass, stalk or shame people.

• A person loses their job and suffers emotionally and physically after they become a subject of non-consensual pornography.

It’s called “revenge porn,” and in a socially networked world that is increasingly shared online, it’s a fast-growing problem.

“One in 10 ex-partners have threatened that they would expose risqué photos of their ex online,” according to a campaign organized by a national support and advocacy group formed by a victim of revenge porn. “Sixty percent of those who threatened to expose intimate photos followed through on their threats.”

Hawaii is no exception to the national trend, say local law enforcement and advocacy groups. That’s why legislation designed to protect victims and punish perpetrators is making its way through the Hawaii Legislature.

House Bill 1750 has advanced in the state Senate and House of Representatives with little opposition. The bill would make it a first-degree violation of privacy to post an image or video of another person either nude or engaging in sexual contact without their consent and with the intent to “substantially harm” that person.

Should the bill become law, Hawaii would join eight other states, including California, Utah and Wisconsin, that already have revenge porn laws. Seventeen other states are currently considering similar legislation, according to Holly Jacobs, executive director of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative.

“It’s a new form of sexual abuse,” Jacobs told Civil Beat via phone from Florida. “It’s not just a means of embarrassing somebody, it effects every aspect of their lives. It can put them in a position of being physically harmed and stalked, and it can ruin a professional life or vocation. It can shatter somebody’s personal relationships with friends and family.”

Jacobs knows all too well what she’s talking about. She was in a long-distance relationship in the mid-2000s and shared nude pictures or herself with her boyfriend. In 2009, several months after she broke up with him, some of those photographs and a video of Jacobs began appearing on the Internet.

“They were posted everywhere,” she said. “He started with Facebook, changing my profiles to nude photos of me. Then he went to post on porn sites and under my full name. And then he started posting on revenge-porn sites. My friends actually thought I was doing it.”

Jacobs went to the police and sought legal advice, but she found out there was no law against what was being done to her — even though she took the photos and could claim copyright infringement. Some websites she contacted took the images down but others did not.

Jacobs formed the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, which relies on donations and receives 501(c)(3) non-profit fiscal sponsorship from The Hub for Direct Community Action.

According to Jacobs’ group, 90 percent of revenge porn victims are women, 93 percent say they have suffered significant emotional distress from it and 49 percent say they have been harassed or stalked online by users who saw their material.

‘Overwhelmingly Degrading’

HB 1750 was introduced by House Vice Speaker John Mizuno with the backing of a dozen representatives, including Speaker Joe Souki and Majority Leaders Scott Saiki. The current draft of the bill would make revenge porn a class C felony, meaning a minimum one-year prison sentence and as many as five years behind bars.

The bill has attracted the support of local law enforcement.

“For better or worse, rapidly accelerating cellular and Internet technology has made it easy to disseminate and access intimate images, videos, and recordings,” testified Maui Chief of Police Gary Yabuta. “Unfortunately, after a friendship or romantic relationship ends, individuals will sometimes ‘get back’ at their ex-lovers by publishing intimate or embarrassing items online or transmitting such items to friends, colleagues, employers, or the general public.”

The Honolulu prosecutor’s office said in written testimony, “Typically, these postings are created by angry boyfriends or ex-husbands, and the comments posted by viewers thereafter are overwhelmingly degrading to the victim. Some websites such as UGotPosted even include a link to the victim’s Facebook, Twitter, or Tumblr page, along with the victim’s full name, age, and location.”

It’s unclear exactly how frequently revenge porn occurs locally. Honolulu prosecutor spokesman Dave Koga said the department receives as many as four reports each month “of harassment types of things that could be, but may not necessarily be, revenge porn.” The hope, said Koga, is that a revenge porn law would encourage victims to come forward.

Another revenge porn bill pushed by the Honolulu prosecuting attorney did not receive a hearing this session.

Cyber Civil Rights Initiative

Image from a website fighting revenge porn.

Differences in the House and Senate drafts of the active revenge porn bill are preventing HB 1750 from heading to the governor’s desk. Legislators are trying to craft a compromise during conference committee.

As currently written, HB 1750 would not apply to images or video used in public or commercial settings, and cellphone and computing service companies would not be subject to liability. Courts also would be authorized to order destruction of the material used in violating the law.

The next public meeting on HB 1750 is Monday afternoon, and the deadline for all bills to remain alive is Friday.

UGotPosted

Revenge porn is not just about revenge; it’s often also about making money at someone else’s expense.

Last December, a 27-year-old man was arrested in San Diego for allegedly running a “revenge porn” racket through the UGotPosted website he created in December 2012.

“According to court documents, [Kevin] Bollaert also set up a second site, changemyreputation.com, from which he would contact the victims, alerting them to the images and offering to take them down for a fee of between $300 and $350,” according to the British newspaper, The Independent. “Photos of more than 10,000 people, most of them women, were reportedly posted to UGotPosted between December 2012 and September 2013, with each individual categorized by location.”

In October, California enacted legislation to make posting of explicit images without permission an offense worthy of a six-month jail term.

Holly Jacobs of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative said there are sites similar to UGotPosted still in operation on the Internet. Rather than try to ignore the Internet, Jacobs encourages victims to be proactive in trying to stop the abuse and to protect themselves. If necessary, they may have to change their names legally, as she did.

The best thing is to enact new laws, Jacob and collaborators like Mary Anne Franks and Danielle Citron argue. Already, California Congresswoman Jackie Spears is working on a federal revenge porn bill.

“It’s simple: criminalize revenge porn, or let men punish women they don’t like,” Franks and Citron wrote in an article in The Guardian last week. “No one should have to fear that the price of intimacy will be a ruined life. And the law can help.”

Contact Chad Blair via email at cblair@civilbeat.com or follow him on Twitter at @chadblairCB.