Have you ever opened your WhatsApp messages and found yourself looking at titillating material? A Maltese NGO is hoping you’ll think twice about the person who might be affected by your actions before hitting forward.
A new campaign on the effects of revenge porn by Victim Support Malta is trying to raise awareness that sharing nude images and videos of people without their consent may be a crime.
A video, which has been shared on Whatsapp and on social media, features a woman about to undress before suddenly fading to black, with the message “sharing revenge porn videos is a crime”.
Revenge porn is when explicit images or videos of a person are distributed to others without their consent. Even when the material is filmed consensually, intimate partners cannot make public what was shared with them unless the party in the footage consents to it, Jessica Calleja Millo, Victim Support Malta’s director, told Times of Malta, while in some instances victims may not have even been aware they were being filmed during intimate moments.
“There was a recent case that garnered a lot of attention, and because such crimes tend to be under-reported and difficult to trace, we wanted to raise some awareness of the situation,” Calleja Millo said.
Malta criminalised revenge porn in 2016, with perpetrators facing a €5,000 fine and up to two years imprisonment if found guilty of the crime.
A police spokesperson told Times of Malta that between 2017 and 2021 officers had investigated 20 cases of leaked nude images.
Of these, four people have been arraigned in court, and two people were found guilty, none of whom received effective prison time. Police received eight reports in 2020 and two in 2021 all of which are still being investigated.
“Victims often feel a sense of betrayal, as they’ve often trusted a partner with a video and they then go and post it online.
“They often don’t know that they have rights that they can report them and pursue in court,” Calleja Millo says.
“There’s also a strong social stigma, many people still blame victims for finding themselves in this predicament, and so social support is cut off.
“Imagine trying to tell your mother that there are photos of you being shared online.”
The campaign was developed in collaboration with TBWA\ANG.
VSA Malta is a volunteer-run NGO that provides support services for victims of crime, including sexual assault and rape. Donations can be made as follows: 5061 7313 – €2.33; 5061 7916 – €4.66; 5061 9246 – €11.65.