In pretty grim news, a 14-year-old girl is suing her 13-year-old classmate after he shared a screengrabbed naked Snapchat photo of her on Facebook and Instagram.
The girl, who goes to a school in Brooklyn, sent the nude selfie to the boy, thinking that it would delete after he saw it. When she realised he’d actually screengrabbed the picture, she begged him to delete the image, which he agreed to. It later transpired that he’d been lying when he asked her send him more naked photos, threatening to ‘expose’ her if she didn’t, the girl alleges in court papers.
The boy subsequently went on to ‘distributed the [original] picture widely’, according to the Brooklyn Supreme Court lawsuit filed against the boy and his parents. The girl was then indundated online with the image, ‘informed by friends and strangers alike that they had seen the picture posted publicly on Instagram, received it in text messages and on Facebook chats.’
Yeesh, and, um, a side note: surely everyone sharing it could possibly get done for disseminating child porn?
The girl is only known as ‘Jane Doe’ and the boy’s identity has been kept secret (presumably to keep hers secret, too), but the image was so obviously her because of ‘her distinctive hair’, that her parents found out about them from a friend’s kid.
Jane was ‘constantly distraught by the reality of others having see her nude body’ – we’re sure the onslaught of messages she subsequently received containing the image, whether well-meaning or out-and-out bullying, won’t have helped.
The girl’s lawyer refused to comment when asked if the family would be going to the police, too. At present, they’re suing the boy for ‘extreme and outrageous conduct’, and looking to get an injunction on him sending the images to anyone else, plus $50,000 in damages (£29,300).
The boy’s mother wasn’t aware of the lawsuit, but told The New York Post: ‘As a parent, I deeply understand the sensitive nature of this matter which my family and I are taking great care to address privately.’
It all sounds pretty grim, but on the plus side, that this suit is being taken seriously is a sign that this sort of revenge porn will not be tolerated, and will act as a warning to any nasty young kids thinking they can bully girls like this.
That said, Instagram is so keen on removing photos of women’s nipples, you’d think it’d manage to take down nudie photos of underage girls too.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.