Student Government Association launched the Initiative to Combat Revenge Porn in response to students and alumni being targeted on a third-party message board.
Caleb Evans, political science senior and SGA secretary of policies and initiatives, said SGA launched the initiative on July 25 in response to members of the OCU community having nude photographs shared without their consent on an online message board. Evans said the issue was brought to attention by a Facebook post notifying students of this website and the fact that it had a section devoted to women who were students or alumnae at OCU.
Ella Dolynchuk, music theater sophomore, said she initially found out about the website from the Facebook post. After students were notified the page had been taken down, she said she discovered it had been put back up.
“I found out it was back up because I had it in the back of my head as a thing that had happened over quarantine. I thought it was absolutely disgusting, and I really appreciated everything the school was doing, but there was no initial statement from the school beyond having a forum. My friends and I were talking about it and wondered if it was still down, and we googled it and saw that it had all been put back up with, I’m guessing, what was the original content. I immediately posted on the OCU Facebook page and tagged the Student Government Association. I just felt very disgusted. That’s the only word that can describe it,” she said.
Evans said SGA hosted a Zoom webinar on Sept. 2, in which he was the moderator, speaking with Civil Rights Investigator Dr. Kristi Pendleton, Chief of Police Dexter Nelson, and IT Representative Nadine Tawney.
Pendleton said posting explicit photographs without someone’s consent violates the university’s non-discrimination policy.
“If students are aware of who is doing that, we hope that you report that so we can take initiative and protect our campus community,” she said. “If a student needs to report, they can report to my office directly. They can also report to Joey Croslin, who is our Title IX coordinator on campus. There is an online report form so you can make a report online, and you can also call or send me an email. Pretty much any way you need to communicate with me is accessible, and we can sit down and talk through this.”
Pendleton said her first priority is that students feel safe.
“If a photo of you is shared without consent, that may fall under a nondiscrimination policy or be sexual harassment. Is it severe, is it pervasive and is it objectively offensive? When you’re looking at that, we have to have all three of those checked off to call it sexual harassment now. But if I can’t move forward with the sexual harassment or Title IX claim, it may still be a violation of the student of conduct, or we may be able to go about a different process. My main concern is making sure students are safe, that there is a safety plan in place, and making sure that student know about resources like campus counseling available to them for free, to know where to access care if they’ve been sexually assaulted if they need to have a SANE (sexual assault nurse examiner) exam or have to go to a hospital,” Pendleton said.
Nelson said the safest way to prevent online sexual exploitation is to not engage in taking explicit photos.
“Once you become a victim of something, it’s very difficult for us to do something about it,” he said. “You might trust someone now but if something happens, that person could use those photographs to intimidate, embarrass or for whatever reason. If the victim did not authorize it, that in and of itself can be a violation of the law.”
Nelson said the sharing of pornographic pictures without the subject’s consent became a crime in Oklahoma in 2016. Previously, only the sharing of underage pornography was a crime, but now sharing pornographic photos without consent is a specific, misdemeanor crime.
“They don’t even have to be electronically shared. You can have something on your phone and show it to someone, or print a picture and hand it someone; that’s still a violation. It makes it a misdemeanor on the first offense, and it’s a felony for every subsequent conviction of violation of this ordinance. Now, if you’re sharing pictures of someone who is under the age of 18, it becomes a felony,” he said.
Nelson also said OCUPD has a mutual agreement with Oklahoma City Police Department that allows campus police to investigate cybercrimes in greater detail through the city department’s detective division and crime lab. Nelson said campus police will partner with OKC police if a student wants to move forward with an investigation.
“Students should understand you don’t have to go down that road of prosecution, you can take other avenues, but you do lose that ability to prosecute someone criminally when you don’t take certain steps like the SANE exam. If you don’t go out to a hospital and get the evidence drawn, if you don’t come out to the scene it may have happened and collect evidence, we lose that forever and may not be able to prosecute someone, or at least, it makes it extremely difficult to prosecute someone. So, whether it be a cybersex crime, a physical sex crime or anything online, there’s a lot of things students can do to protect themselves,” he said.
Nelson also said it’s important to not share highly sensitive or personal information, such as a social security number, online.
“Treat everything online like it’s going to be there forever, because it is. I can tell you, having worked with the cybercrimes OKC police department, even if you have it locked down, someone else can access it. They can still find your pictures and still get into your phone when it’s locked. There’s ways of doing that, and people who do this for a living, for the right and wrong reasons, know how to get into those areas of your phone and find that information,” he said.
Though the campus police and Title IX office share information with each other, Nelson said they have a duty to maintain confidentiality. He said if a student decides to stop the process, they can choose to do so.
“Now obviously, my department is going to share information with the Title IX office, and what I love about being here on campus, unlike having been in regular law enforcement for 33 years, is we have more resources on campus to help deal with the situation. We can help with student affairs, through housing, through the admin office, Title IX office. There’s a myriad of resources to help students. Do what you can to protect yourself. If you think you’ve fallen prey to something, whether virtual crime or actual crime, reach out and we’re here to help you,” he said.
Evans said the initiative is currently geared toward cybercrimes, but he can see it evolving into an initiative against sexual crime in general.
“In my opinion, I think your personal privacy and your bodily autonomy is just so important. At the end of the day, you have one body, you have one mind, and those things tend to be so interconnected that the violation of one ends up violating the other,” he said.
Dolynchuk said she was impressed by the response of both university officials and SGA.
“I was very happy to see that and happy to see that they continue to take initiative months after it happened, showing that they are still holding conversations about it and wanting to help people,” she said. “I think it’s very important to have a good support system and be aware of your resources. I never want to say don’t take those photos of yourselves because it is a woman’s and a man’s right to do whatever they want with their own body, but you should know what can happen if you do take them, and if you’re a victim of revenge porn, how you can seek help.”
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