Welsh women have described feeling violated after finding their photographs being shared and requested by men on internet chatrooms. The threads on web forum Reddit are home to scores of men who ask for and trade explicit pictures of unsuspecting women.
Some of the threads are public, and are often only live for a few days before they are taken down. Others are set to be private and only people approved by moderators can view the photographs and take part.
In the chatrooms, people post photographs of women and ask if anyone knows who they are or have other photographs of them. There are offers to trade photographs and explicit photographs are posted.
Seren Jones, a 20-year-old teaching assistant from south Wales, found her photograph being shared. She wrote: "I've never been more disgusted and violated by something in my entire life. "
She said the page she found her image on had 1,900 members who traded pictures and videos for their own pleasure. "Some charge money, some give away pictures that they have in exchange for someone else's. It's completely degrading.
"What's worse is that the owners of the page have hundreds of folders labelled with the names of women and their pictures... It doesn't matter how old you are, who you are and what you look like. They have everything."
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WalesOnline was contacted by a 31-year-old teacher from south Wales, who did not want to be identified and we are calling Ellie. She discovered a photograph of herself on a chat threat called 'r/WelshGirls' with her name and town and users asking for explicit pictures of her to 'trade' or 'share'.
The thread listed pictures, asking "Anyone know [girls name], from [girls hometown." Other posts included 'Any got Ystradgynlais girls to trade or w**k over dm me', or 'Any Port Talbot/Neath/Swansea girls? New phone nothing to trade' and 'Rhondda swaps'.
Ellie said: "I'm one of the lucky ones, as they were only asking and they couldn't come up with any information or any photos about me. But the other people, there quite a lot of them, they've not been quite as fortunate."
One user had collected a database of hundreds of photos that had been exchanged, all being used as currency to swap and share in order to gain new photos, all being shared without consent. Ellie said: "I felt frightened [when I saw my name], because I haven't had my full name on Facebook, I haven't got a surname, because I'm a teacher, so this person knows me."
She said: "I obviously reported it to Reddit, It was like every time I had a break in work I was pressing the buttons and nothing was coming back. I was clicking harassment, indecent images, I even clicked on minors because there's no guarantee there's none on there."
Seren said she was told by a friend that she was on the thread. She said. "I had no idea such a thing existed," she explained. "I was ill in bed and then one of my boyfriend's friends messaged me and let me know about it.
"I felt so sick. I just couldn't believe that something so disgusting existed." A picture from one of Seren's social media pages had been posted alongside her name and details. Much like Ellie, Seren considered herself one of the "lucky" ones that there was nothing else. "I felt really sick and really violated," she continued, "I felt like someone was watching me."
Reddit informed Ellie that the thread did not violate its terms and conditions, leading her to next speak to the police, who advised her not to go public about the thread. She explained: "I was told by the police do not post on social media, because I said I wanted to make everybody aware, but they told me don't do that, it could make matters worse, and just palmed me off."
Seren also decided to report the page to the police but stated she was yet to hear back from doing so. Seren also decided to post about the thread on Facebook, and has since set up a support group for women who have been affected.
She said: "I've had so many messages, maybe about 30 different women contacting me, saying that they've been found on our site or family member or friend of theirs have been on there." Seren has since removed pictures of herself from her social media, she explained: "I removed all pictures of myself even if it's just a picture of my face, because I just don't feel comfortable sharing anything anymore."
Moderators of the page saw Seren's warning being shared, and left the thread, meaning Reddit eventually took down the thread due to it being unmoderated. As soon as the thread was down, however, new ones popped up all featuring similar content. After researching, WalesOnline found that similar pages from many areas exist all throughout the online platform, objectifying and degrading women without their consent.
One called r/WelshGirlsNSFW describes itself as "A friendly, body positive place for those from or currently living in Wales to share their photos This community is strictly for 18+ adults only". It is set as private meaning "only approved members can view and take part in its discussions".
WalesOnline contacted Reddit regarding the issue and a spokesperson said: "Reddit's site-wide policies strictly prohibit non-consensual sharing of intimate or sexually explicit media, including depictions that have been faked. We also prohibit any sexual or suggestive content involving minors.
"Our dedicated safety teams use a combination of automated tooling and human review to enforce our policies across the platform, including regularly banning communities for this behaviour, and we will continue to take action against violating content, communities, and users."
ACC Jenny Gilmer of South Wales Police said: "Tackling violence and abuse, including on-line abuse, against women and girls is a long-standing priority for South Wales Police and we recognise that concern regarding personal safety and violence is as great as it has ever been.
"As a force we have an excellent history of partnership working. We target resources towards clear routes to safety for victims, supporting and empowering survivors and investing in evidence-based interventions that tackle root causes, addressing the harmful attitudes and behaviours that result in violence and abuse.
"We also have wider strategies to deal with other forms of abuse, including domestic abuse affecting men, and our approach is to treat each incident of violence on its own merits, while having a clear focus on the prevalence and threat, risk and harm.
"We recognise that anyone can be a victim and all victims who report incidents to us will be responded to.
“Each victim will be treated in a sensitive and respectful manner. We will continue to develop responses to address the needs of victims, and we will have a strong focus on interventions for women who we know are more likely to be victims, in terms of frequency and severity of violence and abuse.”
Seren added: "It is a good start, obviously that [the thread] has been removed and everything, and it is peace of mind for a lot of other women that were found on it. But obviously, it will be very difficult and impossible really to control that sort of thing. But at least now people are aware of it. So you can keep an eye out and find out if things are popping up and we can deal with it."
**Name has been changed to protect the victim's identity.
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