GIRLS PRESSURED TO HAND OUT SEX PHOTOS
Girls as young as 13 felt pressured to send intimate photos of themselves and were unaware they were being shared among a group of boys, a court has been told.
The 13-year-old felt “horrible” and “guilty” after sending four or five intimate photos, according to an agreed statement of facts submitted to a provincial court in Nova Scotia.
It said two Dropbox accounts were created for the purpose of sharing intimate images of girls aged between 13 and 17 in various states of undress, including bare breasts and fully nude.
Six Bridgewater, N.S., boys have admitted distributing intimate images of at least 20 girls.
Documents submitted in Bridgewater provincial court Tuesday said one 13-year-old girl was repeatedly asked by one accused for sexual photos over several days and felt pressured to send them.
“She felt he would not let her change the subject. She said no several times. The next day at school (the boy) and his friends were clustered near her locker and gave her the impression that they were talking about her. She felt pressured,” the agreed statement of facts said.
The girl sent four or five photos, but did not give permission to distribute those photos and was told they would not be saved, the statement said.
“She felt horrible when she sent them, but felt that if she did not he would spread some rumour about her at school or confront her about it. She felt guilty and awful after it.”
At the time the charges were laid in July 2016, four of the accused were 15 years old, and two were 18. All were under 18 when the offences were committed, and their identities are protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The victim’s identities are also protected.
All were students in Bridgewater.
Most photos were sent through an app called Snapchat — in which images disappear after 10 seconds — but the boys circumvented the time limit by using other phones to take a photograph of the photo.
In some cases, boys sent unsolicited intimate images of themselves to girls.
The boys will be sentenced July 31.
The case is one of the first in Canada involving legislation introduced in late 2013 after the death of Nova Scotia teen Rehtaeh Parsons, which captured national attention amid a heated public debate over cyberbullying.