The Ministry of Health and Welfare yesterday launched an initiative to help victims of revenge pornography remove offensive content and seek legal redress, as statistics show that 61 percent of victims are unwilling to report the offense to police.
The ministry’s Department of Protective Services told a news conference that a dedicated team would help victims take down and delete leaked images in a timely manner, as well as provide legal counseling and referral services.
The dedicated team is part of the Digital/Internet Gender Violence Victim Support Project, which the ministry launched last year.
In collaboration with several civic groups and online platforms, a protection net is set up to heighten the public’s awareness of the crime and protect the victims.
The Stop Non-Consensual Intimate Image project, a service provided by online platforms, also contributes to the effort, calling on other platforms to curb the nonconsensual spread of intimate images.
According to data the ministry collected from January to last month, 68 percent of those who spread intimate pictures have an “uncertain” relationship with the victim, and 15 percent of those were the victim’s current or previous partner.
The statistics show that 150 victims asked for help during the period, 74 percent of whom were female and 22 percent male, and their images were spread to 821 Web sites.
The majority of victims were aged 19 to 25, and there was one victim aged between 66 and 75, the data show.
The victims often worried that there was no assistance they could turn to and were unsure whether online platforms would quickly take down their images, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lee Li-feng (李麗芬) said.
Some of them thought that asking for help might leave a bad impression of themselves, so only 39 percent reported the offense to the police, Lee said.
With the rapid development of technologies, cases of digital and online sexual violence continue to increase, the ministry said.
Such cases fall under the jurisdiction of the Criminal Code, it said, adding that victims under the age of 18 can also seek judicial intervention based on the Protection of Children and Youth Welfare and Rights Act (兒童及少年福利與權益保障法) and the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例).
Additional reporting by Wu Liang-yi
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