THEY thought their intimate photos would remain private.
That no one other than their significant other would ever see.
But now, through no fault of their own, those private images are on display — and the callous people responsible for posting these pictures think they are fair game.
Nude and revealing photographs of more than 400 Adelaide women and teenagers — some of whom are allegedly under the age of consent — have appeared on a US website, The Adelaide Advertiser reported.
The newspaper chose not to name the site but explained it was contacted by women claiming their photographs were not only being shown without their permission but were also being offered up for downloading.
Amy Cornes, 21, the daughter of football legend Graham Cornes, is among the victims. She has labelled those behind the site as “pathetic”.
The images began appearing on the website in April as part of a messageboard discussion thread.
The user who started the thread promised access to Adelaide “chicks” in various states of undress, telling victims “you cannot do anything to stop us”.
They said they had “100+ different pics of SA chicks” and asked to trade images with others.
Later that month, the user said they had images of more than 400 women and were seeking more.
“It’s really been me doing 90 per cent of the work collecting new content, organising folders, killing duplicates, merging archives,” the user wrote.
“This has been my latest project … I didn’t take all the pics myself or anything but I did go through every single thread and save nearly every image myself.”
Despite being contacted by some of the women for their photos to be taken down, the moderator of the site has reportedly refused saying because it was based in the US, it was exempt from Australian law.
“I’m not happy about them being on the internet. But it’s done now … We’ve still got the power to not give these people the satisfaction,” Ms Cornes said.
“I don’t know what they hope to gain but I assume it’s about getting a reaction to hurt and damage these girls.”
Miss Cornes said her pictures were taken by a friend as a joke.
“I don’t think pathetic people like this should be able to win.”
The site has since been reported to South Australian police.
Independent Senator for South Australia, Nick Xenophon, has called for an urgent revamp of state and federal laws to address what he says is the spiralling cases of cyber-bullying and revenge porn.
Mr Xenophon told news.com.au that current laws were not adequate enough to deal with growing use of social media to bully, blackmail and harass individuals.
He said he already had a bill going through the Senate which targets online predators.
This bill calls for heavier penalties to be put in place for those providing the images and for a fast-track mechanism to shut down any sites — including those hosted overseas — by the Australian Communication and Media Authority (ACMA), to be set up.
“Our current laws do not adequately protect victims of this ‘revenge porn’ which can be incredibly damaging and harmful to the victims involved,” he added.
Police have briefed ACMA and have asked them to investigate blocking the site from being viewed in Australia.
It is understood some of the victims were alerted to the site via Facebook and other social media.
One confronted the user and demanded her photos be taken down, The Advertiser reported.
This is what she received as a reply: “F— off you autistic whore … you cannot do anything to stop us.”
Another victim accused the site of promoting child pornography which prompted this response; “Trying to use imaginary child pornography to further your own ends is absolutely disgusting, if it worked on some other sites it certainly will not work here,” the moderator wrote.
“Small breasts do not count as child pornography — though from the photos I can see none of you suffer that problem.
“(This site) is hosted in the United States, not Australia … the United States, for its part, still has some freedom left.”
The moderator told the women they should approach “the owners” of the photos and seek their deletion, “instead of drivelling nonsense about how 25-year-old women are 11”.
However, police have told victims that despite the site being run from outside Australia, anyone from this country who supplied images to the site could be charged.
Since news of the site first broke there had been dozens of women come forward to say their images were being misused.
Originally published as ‘F*** off you autistic whore’
