Intimate images
Police investigating distribution of images on anonymous photo-sharing site
Staring at the computer screen, Sally Doe wasn’t sure what she was feeling as she saw naked photos of herself on the anonymous photo-sharing website.
“My heart went into my throat. I think there was fear and embarrassment,” said the 27-year-old P.E.I. native.
“I found out about the photos probably two weeks ago. I was getting flooded with messages from friends sending me screen shots telling me they were on this website, while also getting messages from total strangers.”
Sally, whose name has been changed to keep her identity anonymous, is originally from Charlottetown and now lives in Halifax.
“I was naked in the photos. They were images I sent to a previous boyfriend a couple of years ago. Now they’re on Anon-IB, an international anonymous photo sharing website that includes pages for different regions of the world, including P.E.I.”
While this is the first time Sally has seen the photos on this site, they had previously been uploaded to a revenge porn site after the relationship with her boyfriend ended a few years ago.
“I didn’t even know that this other website existed, so to have these exact same photos appear again has brought up a lot of anxieties and fear.”
The website with the tagline “best anonymous image board,” has been making the rounds for a number of years and features pages for Canada, the U.K. and the United States, as well as pages for specific universities, cities and provinces.
While the site has rules in place to prevent the use of last names, posting of photos of minors, personal addresses, phone numbers and social media links, Sally says the users of the page have found ways to work around them.
“I’ve seen them post places the girls work, use numbers or other symbols to substitute out
letters so they can put the person’s full name. They’ll say this person’s name rhymes with this and actually request certain girls from certain areas on the Island.
“I couldn’t believe the number of girls I knew, that guys were requesting.”
At the time of writing this article, the Island page was about 50 posts long, with various sexually explicit photos of girls and women and anonymous users encouraging frequent posting on the page.
“The guys and users are pretty much trading our photos like baseball cards. It makes you feel like you’re an object and not a human being.”
The comments on the site also mention two other file sharing platforms and chat forums where the photos can be traded.
Sally says the website is a dangerous tool.
“It’s very scary. It got so bad with people harassing me for photos, imagine if it got worse and people began tracking you down in person?”
Cpl. Jennifer Driscoll of Summerside Police Services says sharing intimate images without consent is unfortunately becoming more common.
“Once you share an image with someone, you have lost control of that image. You can no longer have certainty that this image will only be seen by the person you sent it to.
“With this age of technology, an image or video can be shared among thousands of people in a very short period of time. Sometimes these images can resurface years later.”
She added, “And sharing intimate images of anyone under the age of 18 is illegal, even if the image was shared with consent.”
With crimes like these, investigators can face challenges, she added.
“Although users may appear anonymous, police can make application for authorization to track down where the offence was committed and, in many cases, track down the user.”
Furthermore, police may go to the initial source of where the image was first distributed, she added.
“In most cases, the image was likely shared consensually with a current boyfriend or girlfriend. If permission was not given to distribute that image beyond the intended recipient, then that person may face charges.”
Currently, Summerside police are aware of the website featuring women from P.E.I. and have received complaints.
“Our understanding is that requests to have photos removed from the website have been adhered to. In some cases, these photos were taken many years ago and have now resurfaced as more people are becoming aware of this website.
“Each complaint will be investigated, and if there is evidence to support charges, they will be laid,” Driscoll concluded.
“Once you share an image with someone, you have lost control of that image. You can no longer have certainty that this image will only be seen by the person you sent it to. With this age of technology, an image or video can be shared among thousands of people in a very short period of time. Sometimes these images can resurface years later.” Cpl. Jennifer Driscoll