Selfies have done more than just found their way into the Oxford English Dictionary. They have integrated into our lives. Slowly but surely, our face is plastered over many social media channels and we soon lose track on who's accessing them. The world as we know it today is more connected than ever before, which has done wonders for business and generally just keeping in touch. But how would you react if an altered image of you or a loved one ended up online, watched and enjoyed as porn? Scary thought, huh?
Well, it happened to a teenager in Perth, Australia. Noelle Martin, now 22, is a victim of what experts call parasite porn, reports ABC's 7.30.
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Image credit: Facebook
When she was just 17 years old, Martin's harmless selfies were stolen from her Facebook page without her knowing. Her face was then edited onto a naked body to make her look like a porn star in a scene.
It wasn't until she was 18 years old when she discovered the altered images of herself online. Martin was in her university digs at the time. She was playing around with Google's reverse image search, a tool which shows where an image has been published online, when the frightening images surfaced on a number of websites. She has been fighting to have them removed ever since.
"My heart sank. My stomach sank. I felt so sick," she told TheLADbible. The student was concerned that people would think that she was voluntarily pictured on the sites.
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But it hasn't been easy or simple. The police suggested that Martin should ask the sites directly to remove the images. However, when she contacted a webmaster to do just that, he tried to blackmail her for more nude photographs for his own private collection.
Video credit: YouTube/ABC News (Australia)
"Even if a young woman's photos are public on social media, it should still be illegal to morph them onto pornographic images and post them onto porn sites along with vile, degrading and inhumane comments," she added. "We must fight to criminalise image-based sexual assault. If we don't, the next victim could be you or your sister or child."
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Martin is now finishing off her law degree in Sydney and is campaigning hard for tougher laws with other victims of parasite porn.
Featured image credit: Facebook
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Social Media