There has been a orchestrated move recently by some, to demean and reduce the experience of genuine victims of Image Abuse. This is often referred to as Revenge Porn.

We have seen quite a number of OnlyFans sex workers, who have been willingly self sexually exploiting themselves online for money, claim to be a victim of Image Abuse. This arrises following their pornographic content screen captured and being shared on among individuals who have not paid to access it.

That is neither Revenge Porn, or Image Abuse. It's the prohibited exchange of what is now being cited as copyrighted content. Similar in many ways to when movies, T.V. shows or music is shared online without the permission of the original creator. Another day online basically.

In stark contrast to this, are genuine individuals who have formed a relationship with another person based on trust and intimacy. These individuals having shared intimate content had a real expectation, their content would never be seen by any other individual.

These victims do not expose themselves for money, rather intimacy. They also rarely forward the content to more than one very trusted person. Not to hundreds, or thousands of “Fans”, believing they are an influencer.

To date nobody in Ireland has ever afforded any concern to individuals who have been involved in the porn industry. People who have been paid buttons, while porn platforms made millions from the content. In fact up to 2019 you would be hard pressed to name an Irish Porn star.

Irish society needs to thread very carefully with the new direction we are all being led down. A direction that will ultimately result in the further rise and normalisation of self sexual exploitation behaviour by young people.

People who work in the OnlyFans porn industry do so, having decided that money is more important than the protection of their reputation, that of their family and friends. They do so knowing full well there are consequences that accompany this profession. Many of those consequences are extremely detrimental.

However, attempting to attach themselves as victims of Revenge Porn, having intentionally generated porn for reward, is wrong. The internet was made for porn. Many of the advances in how the internet operated arose out of attempting to distribute porn to more people and make it more accessible online.

So please don't, belittle the genuine victims who do have a concern for their digital footprint, reputation and that of their family. There's a trade off for all those who consciously decide to sexually exploit themselves on OnlyFans. Part of that trade off absolutely does not include victimisation for monetized content being copied and shared.

Would you still be a victim if you got paid for it, or is it knowing that people are getting content access for free creates the problem.

OnlyFans is neither a safe or secure platform. People are being sexually exploited by the site, yet the vast majority are content to do so as long as it's monatised. This content will haunt people for many years after the eventually end their OnlyFans career.

Unfortunately by then, the damage will be done and virtually impossible to undo. Regardless of the current legislation being introduced in December, a porn star will have incredible difficulty convincing any Judge or Jury that their content self created on a porn site shared without payment is a criminal offence such as Image Abuse.

At the very best it's a copyright infringement. Given all the amount of other copyright infringement taking place online, and the complete lack of success in addressing it, a victory there would be doubtful.

So perhaps the best way to prevent all of this occuring in the first place, is just don't do it. Otherwise, a life will be spent playing Whack-a-mole on trying to get content removed from every porn sharing platform on the planet.

Remember this, countless have tried in the past to try address copywrite protected porn. 99.999% have been unsuccessful. That's worth thinking about.

Those who need help and are victims are individuals are being coerced, threatened or forced to by another to create content for the platform. Individuals who are being human traffic victims. Individuals who do not want to be part of the sex industry. Those being taken advantage of. These people need our help.