Teens at risk of stalking as images used on porn sites

Young people could be leaving themselves open to online and real-life stalkers because of how innocuous photographs are being used in internet porn galleries.

Thu, 16 Apr, 2015 - 01:00

Noel Baker

Childwatch.ie has published a report showing how information associated with photographs uploaded onto social media by teenagers can allow people to trace them back to their online social media accounts — and even their home addresses.

As part of the report, childwatch.ie took 22 images featuring young Irish people found on adult sites and used geolocation techniques to find out how many could be traced back to their social media profiles.

According to the report: “Of that sampling, 14 were successfully traced to their homes and other places that they frequent. It is impossible to estimate if this would represent a trend across all victims, but the degree of success with this limited group is a concern.”

The report suggests that childwatch.ie has in recent times matched 214 victims either from images alone, or combined with identifying information released by the site user uploading the image to the inappropriate website.

Pat McKenna of childwatch.ie, which was established seven years ago, said the Government should consider setting up an independent agency with the power to forcibly remove images of children and young people from adult sites.

“We are supposed to have a very robust internet safety system, but we do not,” he said.

The report states: “Some images of students are being misused on commercial sexual sites such as advertising the services of online escorts. Some students affected are first- through third-year secondary level students. Some individual schools and dance clubs have been particularly hard hit.”

It suggested young people could be “vulnerable to harassment threats such as bullying, extortion, sextortion and grooming. Some victims maybe vulnerable irrespective of the images revealed due to a personal liking from an online user.”

The findings come after RTÉ and BBC investigations into the dangers faced by children and young people in posting material online.