A young mum's partner forced her to have sex with a female prostitute & posted it online.

A young mother forced by her boyfriend to have sex with a female prostitute has described feeling like a “performing donkey” as her partner filmed the act.

The woman, named Amira* says she complied with her partner, Hashim’s demands because she feared for her safety.

Hashim photographed and filmed Amira and the prostitute and then in an act of “revenge porn” posted the images online.

In a submission to a Senate Inquiry looking into whether new offences should be created in relation to revenge porn, Amira has described the turmoil her former boyfriend put her through.

“Amira was very concerned that her young son had been exposed to these images as Hashim had previously shown his son online pornography,” the submission stated.

“Amira also feared that Hashim would follow through on his threats to send the images to her family and friends if she did not do everything that Hashim wanted.”

The submission heard that Amira went to police and also contacted the website to request the images be removed, but “there were no legal consequences or penalties for Hashim”.

Her story isn’t unusual.

Mamamia has told the story before of Cathy, a divorced mother of two who was forced to move cities after a former partner photoshopped her image into pornographic photos along with her name, address and phone number.

In fact a study last year showed that one in 10 former partners threaten to post sexually explicit images of their exes online, and an estimated 60 percent follow through. Over 90 percent of victims are women.

There are currently about 3000 websites hosting ‘revenge porn’ images, but many other images are shared through social media or directly between users.

The Senate inquiry, as reported by Fairfax Media, is considering whether new offences should be created in criminal and civil laws to deal with culprits.

Currently in Australia the act of posting sexually explicit photographs of former or current partners on pornography websites is a criminal offence in both Victoria and South Australia.

Victorian laws enacted in 2013 outlaw the sharing of intimate imagery, texts or videos of an ex-partner with the intent to cause harm or distress. It also makes it illegal to threaten to distribute the images.

In Victoria and South Australia there is a maximum penalty of two years in prison.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions who presented a submission to the inquiry on the “limitations on existing Commonwealth laws” to deal with revenge porn.

It said jurisdictions defined revenge porn material differently, and any Commonwealth offence should be less open to interpretation reports Fairfax Media.

The Commonwealth DPP said the definition of “sexual, personal or intimate” material might differ across society.

According to the office of the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions, legislation surrounding revenge porn does not “encapsulate all types of harm done.”

The NSW Director of Public Prosecutions said a “specifically targeted criminal offence would fill a gap within the existing law” and go some way to addressing the “growing and damaging” phenomenon.

Google has now taken steps to protect people who have their images stolen and placed on these revenge porn sites. The company, while being unable to do anything about the images being on the sites can ensure the image does not appear in any searches done using the Google Search engine.

In fact the company is a part of the Digital Industry Group Incorporated and together along with Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Twitter and Yahoo presented a joint submission urging the inquiry to review existing laws before creating any new legislation.

The group said the non-consensual sharing of intimate images “expressly violate[s] our policies and will be removed when we become aware of them”.

Any new legislation, they said, should focus on malicious intent to “target the most egregious behaviour”.
*Amira and Hashim are not their real names.