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‘We blame the victim every time’
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Young Australians are peppered with advice and threats over the dangers of sending explicit images of themselves. But experts say both the law and the curriculum is lagging behind experience, and too often girls take the blame and face the shame. When Erin was 17, she went along to a seminar with her year 11 class where she was told not to photograph herself naked — and definitely not to send such a picture to someone else. An older woman who had experienced first-hand how badly it could go wrong warned that repercussions could come at once, if the image was shared without her consent, or in the future, if it came to the attention of potential employers. This was coming from a fairly liberal and progressive school. Then in person, that makes sex better. But she sometimes worries that those she has sent in the past may one day be circulated without her consent. For the best part of a decade, young women like Erin have been told by police, parents and schools not to take any photographs that they would not want shared with the world. They believe the issue should be approached from the perspective of harm reduction, and that only those who share the images should face repercussions, not those who take them.
Experts have claimed that the pressure put on young girls to provide sexually explicit photos by boys has recently become a dating norm. Also read: Season's new phones are all about selfies. Cyber safety expert Susan McLean said that every week one or more girls had told her that they feel pressure to reciprocate photos sent by boys and send their photos, the Daily Telegraph reported. Lecturer Melinda Tankard Reist said that girls, aged 12 and 13 year, were getting requests from boys for sexually explicit photos and the level of blackmail was terrible, like starting a sexual rumour about the girl or pasting her screen-captured snap on a naked woman. Also read: 'Sexting' teens 6 times more likely to be sexually active.
