Are you a victim of revenge pornography?
Come and see us if you’re facing problems of digital sexual violence, such as revenge pornography!
Even if you agreed to be filmed with a mobile phone, please come and see us if that footage has been uploaded to a website against your wishes. Please consult PAPS even if other service providers have told you that the footage cannot be removed because it is hosted on an overseas website.
There are a huge number of pornographic video-sharing websites on the Internet, such as PornHub, X-VIDEO and FC2. PAPS has come to learn from people seeking assistance from us that these sites also host revenge pornography footage as well as child pornography.
Even when videos on these sites have been deleted through successful requests for their removal, afterwards the videos can continue to appear on the sites. Police tell us that they can’t launch investigations into the people uploading the footage, because the servers hosting the websites are located overseas, and so they cannot determine whether or not the footage has been uploaded from within Japan. But this passive stance will not solve the problem, and we need to make active efforts to identify the uploaders.
In consultation with victims seeking assistance, PAPS approaches overseas-based pornography video-sharing site businesses. We request they tell us whether or not the footage has been uploaded from within Japan. We then support victims to bring personal civil claims against uploaders, and, after pursuing a number of court cases and injunction orders against uploaders, we have managed to have their personal details disclosed.
Consultations are free. Please come and see us whenever you are unsure about something.
Victims often feel afraid of the people who have used revenge pornography against them, even when they agreed to have pictures taken, or acquiesced to sending footage of themselves. Often the people they are afraid of are former partners or people who bare a grudge against them. Victims try to negotiate and plead with them to not circulate the footage, but perpetrators use this to extort sex with victims or to force them into continuing relationships.
Revenge pornography is a form of sexual violence, and so it makes victims feel ashamed, and powerless. But please don’t blame yourself for becoming a victim.
Instead, please come and chat to us at PAPS. We assist people who have become victims of revenge pornography. We can help you work out a solution according to the details of your particular case.
We offer assistance to victims of digital sexual violence to work together in finding a way forward. We work in collaboration with people who come to us for assistance. As a first step, before a problem becomes overwhelming, please come and chat to us at PAPS.
