Imagine opening social media only to be greeted with an intimate photo of yourself you didn't know existed. Or one you were sure had been deleted. Maybe you took the photo but shared it with only one other person and now it's popped up in group chats where people you don't even know can see it.
A growing number of teenagers, most of them young women, don't have to imagine. They know how the shock can knock the wind out of you, how the violation leaves you frazzled and on edge, and what it's like to walk around wondering if everyone you pass has already seen it.
Image-based abuse, the act of taking or sharing an intimate photo or video without a person's consent, is becoming increasingly common — especially among young people.
About a quarter of all image-based abuse reports received by the eSafety Commission come from people under 18 years of age, with some as young as 13.
Young women are disproportionately affected, according to a 2017 eSafety Commission survey, with 15 per cent of girls aged 15 to 17 reporting having a nude or sexual image posted online without their consent.
But despite how often it happens, the young victims can face bullying and social isolation, and are often too embarrassed to seek out support.
That's why 16-year-old Jess wants to share her story — so other people know they're not alone.
'I saw it happen at least once a week'
Jess, like many teenagers, is no stranger to posting photos of herself online. Being able to control the way she's presented, through curated selfies taken on days when she feels good about the way she looks, has even helped the teenager from regional Victoria feel empowered.
That all changed earlier this year when someone filmed a video of Jess getting dressed without her consent. When she realised what had happened and confronted the person, she was told the video had been deleted.
But two weeks later, she found out the video had been sent to other students on Snapchat — a social messaging app where videos and photos automatically disappear after they're viewed.
"My whole world just fell around me," she says. "I'd lost all my dignity, I was embarrassed, words can't even explain the feelings that I was going through."
Jess spoke to a trusted mentor at school about what had happened. They directed her to the school's wellbeing officer, who talked her through her options.
"I decided not to do anything more, I just didn't want the drama," she says.
But Jess says the problem goes far beyond her own experience. At her previous school, she says she would see nude or intimate photos of girls posted in group chats "at least once a week".
"People would joke about it, and it's something you just don't joke about, especially if the other person doesn't know," she says.
"I’m talking about something private that happened to me in public, because I don’t want someone else — even younger than me — to go through something similar and think it’s normal or OK."
'It's a big problem'
Image-based abuse is an umbrella term encompassing a complex array of behaviours.
It can refer to the sharing of intimate images or videos that were taken with the consent of a person — often called nudes — to third parties, or the capture or creation of images and videos without consent, like in Jess's case, or say, by a stranger in public. It also refers to threats to release such images.
RMIT Professor Nicola Henry has spent the past decade researching the phenomenon after she began to notice it was increasing in frequency with the rise of smartphones and social media.
"It's a big problem," she says. "And it definitely has increased, which is not surprising really."
To convey the scope of the issue she refers to a survey she conducted in 2016 and again three years later; in the first, one in five Australian respondents between 16 and 64 years old said they had experienced having a nude or sexual image or video of them taken, shared or threatened to be shared without their consent. By 2019, the number was one in three.
But, she adds, it's difficult to get a true picture of how widespread the abuse is because many victims do not realise they've been targeted.
"What we know in relation to image-based abuse is that a lot of it is happening without the victim's knowledge," she says. "So the one in three figure we have could actually be an under-estimate of the true prevalence of image-based abuse."
Acting eSafety commissioner Toby Dagg also says they've seen a "concerning increase" in reports of image-based abuse from young people between 13 and 24, with the number almost doubling in the period of January to March compared to the same time last year.
While the personal toll of image-based abuse varies drastically among people who experience it — from life-changing to a slight annoyance — Dr Henry says women and girls are more likely than men to suffer severe repercussions when their images are shared. And in closed communities like schools, the harm of the violation is often compounded by bullying.
One woman interviewed as part of Dr Henry's research told her what happened after her boyfriend shared an intimate video of her with other students when she was at school was almost as harmful as the abuse itself. "She had this awful bullying experience, and then it went online, so she had to move schools but the students there had also heard about it," she says.
"For some people, that can be the icing on the cake of what has already been a really horrible experience of someone breaching your trust and violating your bodily integrity."
Misplaced shaming and blaming
Importantly, image-based abuse does not include consensual "sexting" — the act of voluntarily sharing nude or intimate photos with someone. While research shows young people do engage in this practice, Mr Dagg says its prevalence is often perceived to be higher than it actually is.
According to an eSafety Commission survey, 5 per cent of 14 to 17 year old's have actually sent a nude or semi-nude image of themselves to someone. For girls specifically, the number grows to 7 per cent.
Despite this research, Dr Henry says educational campaigns in schools are often what she calls "anti-sexting" instead of focused on the consequences of sharing such images without consent.
"They tend to focus on the lifelong and disastrous consequences that will befall women, particularly young women, when they share nude or sexual images with someone they trust," she says.
"And that is really problematic because it relies on messages of abstinence and fear ... The messaging needs to be around consent and respect."
Jess believes teachers "don't really know what's happening" when it comes to the prevalence of image-based abuse, and when they do: "They don't really know what to do about it."
Mr Dagg acknowledges that this is a "relatively new and emerging issue" for schools to tackle, but encourages school leaders to draw on resources in the Health and Physical Education curriculum and eSafety education guides.
The eSafety toolkit for schools says all staff members should be trained to recognise image-based abuse and refer any instances to a designated staff member or principal as soon as they become aware of it.
"Remain calm, reassuring and non-judgemental," it reads. "Do not say or do anything to blame or shame any students involved."
What can you do if your image is shared?
In addition to telling parents and school staff what has happened, the eSafety Commission urges young people who have fallen victim to image-based abuse to make a report to eSafety, so they can help with getting the images or videos removed from social media platforms.
This involves taking screenshots or photos of any messages or accounts posting the material. "As part of an investigation, we might also speak with schools if they can help address the problem and police if they are already involved or ought to be involved," Mr Dagg says.
While all states and territories, excluding Tasmania, have specific laws concerning image-based abuse, it's also a federal crime to share private sexual material without consent. When the people involved are underage, sharing intimate images may also fall under child exploitation legislation.
Despite this, one thing Dr Henry says she's heard time and time again from the people she's interviewed is that they didn't know what had happened to them was even wrong, let alone a criminal offence.
"Often they didn't know that they could do anything about it, they didn't know where to go for help," she says. "The most vital need is to give victim-survivors information, support and advice about what they can do if that's happened to them — and that support needs to be non-judgemental."
Months after her video was shared, Jess says she's managed to come to terms with what happened. When people make comments, she says she tries to shrug it off. "It's gone, people have seen it, there's not much I can do about it," she says.
"I worked so hard to get out of that mental state, I don't want to go back there."
But while she has made peace with her own experience, she has four younger sisters who she "worries about a lot".
"I want other girls and boys to talk to people about it," she says. "Don't feel ashamed or embarrassed because it happens all the time. It's disgusting, it's wrong, and people should know it is wrong."
The ABC’s Takeover Shepparton program gives a voice to young people across regional Australia. If you would like to find more stories or learn about the next Takeover intake go to the Takeover website.
Young people in regional Australia can find support here.
To find out how eSafety can support you to remove intimate images shared without consent visit their website and to hear from other young people on how to stay safe online follow @scrollwithesafety on Instagram and TikTok.
