Last week’s report about a website run by a pornography ring targeting female students is terrifying, particularly for parents of teenage girls.
But it should also push us to think about our young men and teenage boys.
The Children's eSafety Commissioner is receiving an accelerating number of cyberbullying complaints from teenage girls who in some cases are threatened because of images taken years previously.
These days it takes little more than the click of a mouse for photographs to be shared around the world.
Significant numbers of people are using social media – in the case of Facebook, it is 15 million Australians – and this has changed the way information and photographs are shared.
Anyone who uses social media shares information about themselves to a greater or lesser extent. In the case of Facebook, the strictest privacy settings mean that may just be a profile photograph.
Since the story about this website broke, there have been numerous reminders to girls, in particular, not to take sexualised or naked photographs of themselves, or allow such photographs to be taken.
However, the reminders and focus on the subjects of the photographs has drawn attention away from the teenage boys and men who are using the website; the ones who are exploiting girls.
According to the reports, when some victims pleaded to have their indiscreet photographs taken down, they were told they have no one but themselves to blame.
It is a bit like the response that a woman was raped because she was guilty of wearing a short skirt.
No, rapists are the cause of a rape; not a person’s clothes, where they are walking or what they have had to drink.
Putting the onus on girls to protect themselves is taking responsibility away from the boys and men who are involved in these activities, together with those who encourage it and who are engaging in what appears to be a male pack mentality.
Yes, we need to educate boys, girls and adults about how information shared online can be misused and abused and measures that can better protect our privacy.
While sharing revealing photographs of underage girls is a criminal offence, we also need to change mindsets so that children of both genders have more respect for others, are aware of women's rights and recognise that it is wrong to exploit others.
