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A WOMAN WHOSE intimate photographs were shared on a now-deleted page on the website Reddit has described the moment she saw her image and how she felt physically ill.
The woman, who is 21 years old and from the north Wicklow area, said that a male friend tipped her off to the Reddit page after someone shared her photograph in a WhatsApp group he was in.
The subreddit, called Irish Sluts, featured portraits of families, social media posts, and images of women walking in public or in the gym, but there were also nude photographs taken in more intimate settings.
Details of where some of the women live and where they attend college or school were also posted on the site.
TheJournal.ie earlier this week reported about how the site had “grown exponentially” in recent weeks, according to their administrator. The page was shut down hours after our initial story.
‘Nearly got sick’
Speaking anonymously in the wake of the shutdown, the woman said she felt violated and “nearly got sick” when she was alerted to the page.
“I got a call from a friend of mine who said that my photo was being sent around lots of WhatsApp groups,” she told us.
“I use Instagram a lot so I was annoyed, but I wasn’t really surprised that someone could get the pictures. But when he sent me it, it was a photo I definitely had not put on Instagram. It wasn’t like, fully nude or anything like that, but it was a photo I didn’t want everyone to see.”
“But then I went and I clicked into it [the page] and the first thing I saw was [another] woman’s nude photograph,” she continued. “It had her face on it and the caption was like ‘last night’s Tinder date’ and there were men commenting on her face and her body. My picture wasn’t like that but it wasn’t really one I wanted people to see.”
“Mine had a few comments on it, calling me a slut and a whore and that I’d like anal sex and that I’m from [the area that she is from]. I honestly nearly got sick. It was just disgusting. I wanted the world to swallow me up. I started thinking if my dad was going to see it and if I could go back to work if people saw it.
“For me it’s just a big violation of my privacy. I didn’t really sleep for days when I found out about what was happening. I got in touch with everyone who might have had access to the photo as well but I didn’t really get anywhere.”
I contacted the guards and Reddit and a few other people about my rights. I was a bit put out that there was no way into it for me other than to go to Reddit.
Though she was shocked to see her own image on the subreddit, the woman said the photo – and the comments below it – were tame compared to other images she saw on the page.
She added: “Some things they were saying were about families and that someone’s mother was good at certain sexual things. There was actually someone looking for naked pictures of girls from his town. It’s scary to think that there are young guys around you who are just looking for naked photographs of you.”
Legal protection
Currently, the only law protecting against the distribution of these images without permission is contained in the Non Fatal Offences Against The Person Act. There is a subsection of this act which deals with harassment. However, there are no specific laws in place to guard against this type of online incident.
Last year, Labour leader Brendan Howlin said that Ireland is lagging when it comes to dealing with the issue of ‘revenge porn’.
The Wexford TD said Irish laws covering so-called revenge porn – the posting of sexually explicit images of a person online without their consent, generally by a former partner or date – are not adequate, which is why his party is bringing forward its own Bill to tackle the issue.
The Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill would provide for a six-month prison sentence upon conviction. It is still before the Oireachtas.
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All the 8th amendment does is harm women’s health. Replace it with legislation that treats pregnant women and girls as autonomous humans, not Tupperware containers. The rally for lies this Saturday will be interesting.
@DaisyChainsaw: I find these, while no doubt well meaning, a tad disturbing in that the more options and recommendations that are made, the more they’ll cherry pick from and ignore but still be able to quite legitimately say they followed the advice of the Citizens’ Assembly.
That all makes sense. Hopefull the Oireachtas implements the recommendations of the report.
@Daithí Ó Coinnigh: Kenny announced when the Assembly delivered not what was wanted (by the politicians in government) that there was another committee to be set up and ‘consider’ the Assmbly’s output – i.e. Water it down or even better – drag it into a dark alley, ignore it and bull ahead regardless.
Let women determine their own treatment options – NOT politicians!!!
If you’re going to explain the word consensus, don’t do so incorrectly. Consensus is where you arrive at something acceptable to all or the vast majority. Thus, these recommendations are acceptable to the vast majority of the assembly.
Are we going to need new jumpers with REPLACE on them instead?
@Fiachrá Ó Dubhthaigh: repealing and then creating legislation for this is the best way.
Ireland’s obsession with referendums for everything really needs to stop, the only way this can stop is us stopping adding everything to the constitution even when it doesn’t need to be in it.
Repeal! It’s their choice. We are all human and I have no right to tell another human how to live.
@Nicholas J Campbell: we are all human and we ALL have a RIGHT to live.
Just bring it in, make it available for anyone who plans on having one & get it over with.
Nicholas we are all human and we all have a RIGHT to live
There still wasting taxpayer money !
Women are tax payers too and their health deserve to be properly looked after
Nicholasjcampbell we are all human and we ALL have a right to live
The first thing I have to say is “When did 25% become a consensus”. The second thing is ” I believe that the Citizens Assembly is one of the most sexist groups I’ve ever come across. Have men and boys not got an equal right to control over their reproduction . Or any ! This assembly is so biased that it didn’t even mention condoms for boys and men.
This article is either poorly written, or the Citizen’s Assembly was all over the shop.
“These recommendations were arrived at via a consensus (ie a majority were in agreement) of the members’ responses.”
and then
“Between 15 and 20 members calling for a recommendation (roughly 25%) was taken to be consensus.”
If the latter is what they viewed as a consensus, then the must have only a cursory relationship with a dictionary.
“usually in singular: A general agreement.”
have your say