Revenge porn cases soar to record high

Jiji Press
TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The number of consultations Japanese police received over “revenge porn” came to 1,243 in 2017, National Police Agency data showed Thursday.

The total surpassed 1,000 for the third straight year and hit a new record high.

The police took action against 283 revenge porn cases, almost unchanged from the previous year.

Revenge porn is the act of distributing on the internet or through other means sexually explicit images or videos of former partners or friends without their consent.

Of the victims, 24.7 percent were aged 19 or younger and 37.7 percent were those in their 20s.

Of the perpetrators, some 60 percent were the victims’ partners or their former partners, 13.2 percent had contact with the victims only over the internet and 2.7 percent were people related to the victims’ workplaces.

In 514 cases of consultation, the victims received threats to make their photos or videos public. In 362 cases, the victims claimed that their photos or videos had been taken or possessed by others.

Photos or videos were sent to the victims in 255 cases and were actually made public in 236 cases.

Of the cases handled by the police, 57 were cases of violation of the law against revenge porn, 56 were intimidation cases and 39 were cases of violation of the law against child prostitution and child pornography.

The police issued warnings to offenders in 633 cases and asked website managers to delete photos or videos in 83 cases.