Revenge porn organizer imprisoned

Kevin Bollaert, living in San Diego was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment as operating a coercive business.

(This photo was provided by Photo AC.)

According to the court, he was managing a website exhibiting nude photos without the consent of the subject. The photographers had sent the photos attached to personal information of the subject anonymously. Then he requested money to those asking to remove the content. He is said to have got a total of 30,000 US$ from the victims.

The Guardian: Revenge porn website operator jailed

Obviously, his act is not acceptable. Even the lawyer for him admitted it.

Revenge porn is a relatively newly developed pattern of crime. Therefore, the legislation to restrict such behaviors has not fully established. On the other hand, the number of victims is rapidly increasing because of the easiness of committing it.

My past entry: Revenge porn

In this case, there are three types of offenders. Kevin is to be blamed first, needless to say. In addition, thousands of people sent the photos to him secretly. The lawyer claimed that allowing others to post the explicit material is not breaching the law. Nonetheless, it is no doubt that the providers had a malice, more or less, to humiliate the victims. If there had no providers of the photos, Kevin's "business" has not been able to launch.

The third offenders are the watchers. Many people are curious to see the nude of others. And some are stimulated by peeping behavior. Recently, a gynecologist was arrested by taking photos of the clients stripped at the physical examination. Also in Japan, there is a lot of porn categorized to peeping.

My past entry: Mass peeping by a gynecologist at Johns Hopkins

It is almost impossible to charge all of these offenders. However, it is not adequate for the prevention of further crimes only to crash the administrator of such porn site. It is inevitable to make a new rule of restriction against the providers and users of such harmful acts. Education for potential victims is necessary as many describing. It is awful that a tiny recklessness in youth may ruin your life.

Furthermore, the technology to delete a particular content immediately on the internet is expected to be developed, like being described in some Sci-Fi movies. But it is not realistic at the present. The characteristics of digital materials as not being expired is completely disadvantageous in this issue, ironically.