HOW COMMON IS REVENGE PORN IN NZ?
Lyons says it's an act that has become "unfortunately fairly common" here, as couples willingly share images in the happy stages of their relationships.
"Taking pictures has become quite a normal part of a lot of healthy relationships."
But he says Net Safe repeatedly sees that when those relationships and trust breaks down "one of the mechanisms for revenge or for manipulation of an ex partner is to either threaten or actually post these kinds of images. So unfortunately it is something we're seeing more and more often."
LEGAL IMPLICATIONS
There are two different paths victims of revenge porn can pursue through the New Zealand legal system, says Lyons.
"In New Zealand we have laws that directly stipulate that you can't post things online with the specific intent to cause somebody serious emotional distress.
"There are civil actions that an individual can take."
Lyons advice is that if you are feeling distressed by what is shared online you can seek to have it removed fairly quickly though Net Safe. Or if that doesn't happen quickly enough, you can take things through your district court and have measures taken against it that way.
"At the more severe end there's a criminal sanction. The police can actually press charges against people who do this and have done several times since the law has been around."
A VICTIM'S RIGHTS
Lyons stresses the importance of reporting these crimes and making sure that you don't allow these images to sit on the internet for too long.
"There's two ends of the scale. A lot of people will see it happening and report it really quickly because they know there's a desperate need to take it down ... But in some cases people would hope that it becomes yesterday's news very quickly, that it goes away and in fact the more attention you draw to it the worse it may get."
But, says Lyons, "closing your eyes and hoping it goes away" is not the right approach.
"With any kind of harmful content online, generally the faster it comes down, the less the harm is."
SHOULD YOU STOP SHARING IMAGES WITH YOUR PARTNER?
You may be thinking, when are people going to learn from this and stop sharing saucy snaps?
But, as Lyons notes in the Kardashian-Chyna case, the images that wind up being shared as revenge porn are usually sent during a period of trust between two consenting people.
"This is not covert imaging. This is not him snapping pictures. These are two consenting individuals who took those pictures. I don't think that's going to stop."
Lyons says with this crime, the trouble arises later when relationships break down.
"When we have a lack of trust afterwards, that's the issue. When it's going to stop, I don't know. New Zealand is taking measures to get that content removed quicker, other countries are doing the same.
"I think it's probably always going to be about the response that we can do (sic) and the support we can give to people who find themselves in this position, rather than it ever stopping in the first place."
