Passage of Revenge Porn bill can protect SC residents from human trafficking
The Cyber Sexual Harassment Bill, H. 4563, better known by some as the Revenge Porn Bill, is pending in the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Rep. Chris Murphy.
If passed, this bill can help stop human trafficking, and will finally add South Carolina to the list of 48 states that have already criminalized revenge porn. Only South Carolina and Massachusetts have yet to do so.
Revenge porn is a type of harassment that occurs when one person posts sexually explicit images of another person online without their permission.
Human traffickers use revenge porn too, often to blackmail a victim into continuing to do sex work.
Revenge porn can be an act of trafficking when it’s commercialized. If an individual makes money by posting an explicit video of a victim who the trafficker defrauded or coerced, this is a criminal act.
This criminal act is human trafficking.
When an individual sells explicit content of a minor on porn sites or elsewhere, this is a criminal act.
This criminal act is human trafficking.
In 2021, according to the South Carolina Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Task Force, 53% of the specified sex trafficking venues in South Carolina were either pornography or internet-based commercial sex.
Porn sites that peddle videos of trafficked victims profit from the conduct of traffickers, capitalizing on the exploitation of victims and the ignorance of many viewers. Tragically, what appears consensual on screen, simply is not. The numbers are telling.
Two years ago, a New York Times piece chronicled how Pornhub, the world’s largest porn site, illegally monetizes videos of rape, sexual abuse of underage youth, and revenge porn.
Pornhub subsequently took down over 10 million videos, roughly 80% of the platform’s content, in response to allegations that they were unable to verify the age or consent of the individuals in the videos.
Young people are particularly vulnerable to trafficking. In 2021, our state’s Department of Social Services identified 236 children as victims of human trafficking. Despite its prevalence, only six new human trafficking charges were brought in state courts last year.
Traffickers often use social media platforms, video games and chat sites to recruit children. After recruiting their victims, and convincing them to send explicit content, traffickers sell it on porn sites.
Stephanie Boye, an educator, podcaster, founder of www.INeeded2Know.com, has extensively studied revenge porn and is frequently contacted by parents desperate to have their child’s images removed from the internet. “Revenge porn does not discriminate by age, gender, race, religion or socio-economic group. It is typically used to bribe, to get ‘revenge’ and to manipulate the victim into sex work,” she said.
Traffickers are highly adept in gaining trust and manipulating victims, both adults and children, over social media platforms. That’s why Boye, who teaches at the College of Charleston, believes stronger laws and education are necessary to protect citizens from others who will callously use a screen and the content they publish to destroy lives.
By definition, money motivates traffickers to destroy lives. The careless or insidious act of one human being can do unquantifiable harm to another, even where no money is exchanged. If you never encounter a trafficker, this bill criminalizes the conduct of that former friend, lover or stranger who stands ready to exploit the images of you, your child, or someone you know.
Spite and greed are powerful motivators, but so is the law. Revenge porn should finally be criminalized in South Carolina
Anne Ross is an attorney with Charleston Pro Bono Legal Services and Brooke Burris is founder and co-chair of the Tri-County Human Trafficking Task Force and part of the South Carolina Legislative Roundtable on Trafficking & Exploitation.
This story was originally published February 14, 2022 at 12:10 PM.