life changes with a phone call some
years ago I was sitting in my London
office on a Saturday night at midnight
writing a brief I had a phone call from
a mother a very distraught mother from
Kansas in the United States and she
called to say that she needed my help
she was desperate for it and she
explained that she had a daughter Sally
who had gone out with a great friend of
hers Victoria on Friday night in a small
town in Kansas with a bunch of kids not
these these are just illustrations
they’re not the real ones but with a
bunch of high school friends and it
would hung out together for a long time
they’ve grown up together there are
about 20 high school kids in this group
10 boys 10 girls and they have done
everything together for the longest time
the best of friends so they went out on
a Friday night and they got to the house
of one of the boys and the parents
upstairs or having a cocktail party and
it just said to the kids you all are you
20 you go downstairs it’s fine so they
went down to the basement for the rest
of the night no one checked the basement
not one adult in due course Sally
collapsed on the floor with too much
liquor and actually lay there in a slump
one of the boys one of her great friends
after all
said let’s have some fun and let’s tape
over clothes so he took off her clothes
boys and girls everybody watching
healthy and then another bright idea
came and he decided to write on her body
which they did with magic marker and
then somebody said and let’s take some
objects and put them in her vagina would
that be fun so they did that but they
did it in the style of the times with
iPhones copying filming everything the
next morning Sally got up she had no
clothes on and she said to her friend
Victoria laying next to her what
happened
Victoria said don’t worry about it
nothing let’s just go home and over the
weekend Sally didn’t really get called
by anybody the texts were few and far
between about math and other things like
that but not the usual stuff on Monday
she went to school a little bit of a
cold shoulder but she couldn’t quite
play
because it never happened before on
Tuesday the same and Wednesday
she got what probably the whole school
got and that was a film of what happened
to her on Friday night she went home
her mother was home she actually had one
of those mothers who bake cookies it in
the middle of the afternoon waiting for
their daughter to come home she walked
in and her mother said Sally how much
her day
and Sally Sally said mom this was not
very good Sally went upstairs and killed
herself
mother said what can be done what can be
done and it’s a lawyer I have no tools
in my box Gail there was nothing I could
do but offer this is serious I’m sad
condolences interestingly a few weeks
later I got a call from a girl called
Chrissy chambers a beautiful model she’s
a YouTube star she had some years before
falling in love first love with a
British man she’s an American and after
a while she realized that this really
wasn’t working out and that they weren’t
made for each other and they should
actually break up and so he was not
happy with that but he said you know
Chrissy let’s have one night together
and we’ll practice drinking because
you’ve never really drunk you want to be
an actress I haven’t really drawn
godlike – after myself so let’s do this
together we’ll have this one last night
she agreed they started drinking and she
like Sally collapsed with liquor well
she didn’t know is that the ex boast her
guy took out a camera and proceeded to
rape her and he filmed the wait they
broke up she went on in her life she
fell in love with Freda a wonderful
attractive woman they are now both of
them on YouTube and they have a great
audience and they do LGBT rights and
their strong campaigners they make a
great couple
so if she came in she said that one day
she’s you know on her website doing her
stuff on YouTube and she gets a link and
somebody writes her and says you’re
nothing about us
you’re a whore everything I believed in
you I don’t believe anymore how could
you she presses on a link and of course
it’s the video from the rape four years
before which he never knew existed she
descended into a deep depression she
became alcoholic suicidal she came to us
and she said what could you do so this
time I said all right we’re gonna use
all the tools we have in our chests as
lawyers and we’re gonna take you take on
the system and we’re gonna try and bring
change and we have been able to get
changed just a week ago we settled her
case she got what we called justice in
this world which is that we’ve got all
the vestiges of her video off the
internet and of course we had gone on
once and then it had gone viral so it
was all over the gutter all down
we got an apology from the man who did
it we’ve got an admission of liability
and without a whole lot of money
probably more money for her than any
other victim of revenge porn has ever
had now we’ve had other cases these are
two quite extreme cases in many ways but
we had a case for instance of a woman
just an ordinary woman anybody here who
came in to us and she was quite beside
herself because her face had been
photoshopped over the face of a naked
model and then had been put on the net
and then it had gone viral and we went
to I met her in New York City we were
walking after meeting down the theater
district and men and people would look
at her oddly I never had that experience
with a client before as we walked out
couple of beds stared hard and then one
man came up to her and said aren’t you
Ava she turned to me and she said how
many men have masturbated to my image
how many men I feel sexually terrorized
so this is revenge porn this is the
world we live in it’s the distribution
of intimate images without the consent
of the person whose picture is being
eighty and ninety percent of the victims
of revenge porn are women it is a gender
crime typically although there certainly
many men have been porn doll so when you
see it as a hate crime
it’s a crime of sexual violence and it’s
a cyber sexual assault why do people do
this they do it show their anger to be
dominant they do it for fun and kicks
and they do it for money and men do it
because they want in a way cowboy
justice they feel hurt maybe abused by
the woman and so they want to get even
and they want even even hard and fast
and so he validates his masculinity he
wants control he wants to shame her and
then very quickly as you know a jury of
internet trolls who see these pictures
we distribute them and they confirm his
opinion that this girl really deserves
what she’s getting you may recognize
this picture of Marilyn Monroe not as
sexually portrayed is often one might
see her it’s still the gorgeous woman in
1949 she posed nude for pictures
desperate for money to a photographer
Tom Kelly for $50 she then became
rapidly famous and by mid 50s she was
well known and all over the place and
her pictures were then sold by Tom Kelly
without her consent without her
knowledge for a whole lot of money and
she and her career were almost destroyed
but she fought back she dressed more
beautifully she was in more films she
took it on the cuff and she’s decided to
go forward so why would anybody send
naked pictures of themselves how does
that happen who would do that you do it
because of course it’s a sort of sexy
and a cold thing you do it because you
want your partner to be happy it’s an
active adult intimacy out of curiosity
you don’t have to raise your hand but
how many of you have sent pictures of
yourself intimate pictures of yourself
to someone does anyone want to volunteer
because most people have done this
and this crab clearly not you’re very
cautious
we had another case of a woman who
married man on the wedding night of a
beautiful wedding she had had somebody
prepare beautiful pictures boudoir
pictures of herself as a gift to her new
husband magnificent shots marriage
didn’t last and the man decided to put
them on the internet and to shame her
her career was destroyed she’s not been
able to get really excellent work since
and it’s hurt her so deeply so now it’s
the new normal of one might say half of
young people claim that they have sent
intimate pictures of themselves to
others and 1/8 of facebook users claim
as they have been the victims of her
going to pornography the youngest person
ever investigated for doing the wrench
pornography is a five-year-old and the
youngest victims so far who’s been
investigated for child porn is 11 a
victim of child porn of revenge porn I
say child because obviously at 11 she is
a child people say well the girls
deserve it
you know she deserved it she’s mean
she’s a slut she’s stupid you hear that
a lot that’s really the girl’s fault for
this and what happens is really pretty
serious we have cases all the time in
this area
and we find as women come in because
they’ve lost their jobs because pictures
have gone out that they didn’t even know
sometimes were taken they get sent with
their names and addresses and contact
details but over their social media
quite often and of course their family
friends parents sisters brothers see it
and it just really damages fundamentally
those relationships they get expelled
from school sometimes they’re ostracized
in their community and if they’re in a
child custody battle judges may well
take away the children of those women
who have been porned sometimes those
scriptures are used to threaten women to
come back to domestic relationships that
are abusive unless they don’t come back
they’ll put the porn pictures out and of
course we have a lot of cases women say
their details are up on the internet
with messages like you know she wants to
fuck you come on over
and so people fear men appear at women’s
houses looking for a good time and then
we have of course with a number of women
like Sally they commit suicide what does
the law do I mean the law is active
we’ve been very active as a law firm and
we have been very much involved in
getting it a crime here in Britain and
in 38 states United States we’ve got
revenge biography laws on the books but
the laws are weak as far as we try to
make them strong they’re still weak
there’s something there now but there’s
not enough so what happens in the UK if
you actually do it youporn somebody with
the intent of causing malice and harm
and distress you can go to jail for two
years if you’re found guilty but if you
do it because you’re out with your
friends and you just want have a good
time that’s not a crime and if you do it
to make money that’s not a crime in this
country either there are 3,000 revenge
porn sites in the United Kingdom right
now and it’s a flood it’s getting worse
all the time people are using their
iPhones younger and younger people are
sexting
this is part of the future and of course
the police are restricted because they
can only go after the perpetrators they
can’t go after the domain sites that
host the pornography or the credit card
companies that make money off of them
and have an incentive to keep that those
pictures going round and round and round
so we need more internet you know
investigative officers people are
trained to do something about this we
need to have a way so that people who
are porn can go after the person who did
it and get civil damages so you can
actually incentivize them not to do this
and make them pay if they do and we need
moral and political will to change the
problem to cure this problem one of
things we could do and it’s been talked
about is to get actually videos of women
men who are about to be porn where they
have to consent they gave their driver’s
license there they’re you know
identifiers or passports and that person
says look I am so-and-so I’m over the
age of consent and I know what these
pictures are and they describe the
pictures
and I’ve consented them going up on the
Internet now that could be done really
easily of course we’re gonna have to
have a law to make that happen
something like that could be done it
would stop the garden-variety
revenge pouring clearly it may not stop
the sex workers from being bullied and
cowed into consenting but certainly
would stop a lot of the problem very
very fast there were other things that
have been done in the 70s I worked with
a group of people who had credit card
receipts of men famous men judges police
officers senators heads of corporations
who would actually use prostitution
services and we’ve got these receipts
and actual proof and we’re able to go to
the Hartford Courant a big paper in
Connecticut and on the front page on a
Sunday morning where the names of all
these men that we could prove actually
use prostitution services I can assure
you with that the treatment of
prostitutes in the state of Connecticut
improved dramatically after that Sunday
morning other things we can do we can
name and shame people who actually run
those revenge porn sites so if your dad
owns that site you can let it be known
to the child to the wife you know this
is the business you’re in this is how
you’ve made your great money Facebook
Google reddit
the people who repost and credit card
companies who make money off of it they
should all have to be reined in there
should be a law to prevent that Jennifer
Lawrence studies and Jennifer Lawrence
had as most of you know her nude
pictures hacked they were stolen from
her she took a Marilyn Monroe approach
she looked everybody in the eye and she
said I am NOT a victim I am NOT going to
be shamed by this this is a sexual crime
that should be treated as such it’s not
funny when she calls for things
education about internet conduct there’s
a Girl Scout badge now an online badge
and Internet safety which when I was of
age of course never existed she calls
her gender respect we need to have more
gender respect so people don’t do this
and perhaps classes that you actually
take maybe two kids in school pictures
naked pictures and say say this is you
and you passed
and they go viral how are you gonna feel
about that you teach it in the schools
so that those doing it and maybe the
boys of an anger management problem
later they get to think about it first
and realize this is not a good thing to
do the last thing that maybe Jennifer
Lawrence teaches us is maybe it’s
actually time as a society that we think
about shame and what is shame and why is
it so effective and maybe being seen
with your clothes off in naked positions
maybe that shouldn’t be shameful maybe
we shouldn’t be embarrassed and we
should somehow teach next generation to
protect themselves at least that way so
they have become emotional wrecks crazy
Chambers is here now the case is over
I’m there with her and she’s now
legislating for more reform she’s
campaigning
she took the Marilyn Monroe the Jennifer
Lawrence approach and she says no you
can only feel shame if you let yourself
feel shamed and we have to stop that and
she’s now a hero to many many many young
girls who are also joining her to fight
back I ask you to fight back to thank
you [Applause]
years ago I was sitting in my London
office on a Saturday night at midnight
writing a brief I had a phone call from
a mother a very distraught mother from
Kansas in the United States and she
called to say that she needed my help
she was desperate for it and she
explained that she had a daughter Sally
who had gone out with a great friend of
hers Victoria on Friday night in a small
town in Kansas with a bunch of kids not
these these are just illustrations
they’re not the real ones but with a
bunch of high school friends and it
would hung out together for a long time
they’ve grown up together there are
about 20 high school kids in this group
10 boys 10 girls and they have done
everything together for the longest time
the best of friends so they went out on
a Friday night and they got to the house
of one of the boys and the parents
upstairs or having a cocktail party and
it just said to the kids you all are you
20 you go downstairs it’s fine so they
went down to the basement for the rest
of the night no one checked the basement
not one adult in due course Sally
collapsed on the floor with too much
liquor and actually lay there in a slump
one of the boys one of her great friends
after all
said let’s have some fun and let’s tape
over clothes so he took off her clothes
boys and girls everybody watching
healthy and then another bright idea
came and he decided to write on her body
which they did with magic marker and
then somebody said and let’s take some
objects and put them in her vagina would
that be fun so they did that but they
did it in the style of the times with
iPhones copying filming everything the
next morning Sally got up she had no
clothes on and she said to her friend
Victoria laying next to her what
happened
Victoria said don’t worry about it
nothing let’s just go home and over the
weekend Sally didn’t really get called
by anybody the texts were few and far
between about math and other things like
that but not the usual stuff on Monday
she went to school a little bit of a
cold shoulder but she couldn’t quite
play
because it never happened before on
Tuesday the same and Wednesday
she got what probably the whole school
got and that was a film of what happened
to her on Friday night she went home
her mother was home she actually had one
of those mothers who bake cookies it in
the middle of the afternoon waiting for
their daughter to come home she walked
in and her mother said Sally how much
her day
and Sally Sally said mom this was not
very good Sally went upstairs and killed
herself
mother said what can be done what can be
done and it’s a lawyer I have no tools
in my box Gail there was nothing I could
do but offer this is serious I’m sad
condolences interestingly a few weeks
later I got a call from a girl called
Chrissy chambers a beautiful model she’s
a YouTube star she had some years before
falling in love first love with a
British man she’s an American and after
a while she realized that this really
wasn’t working out and that they weren’t
made for each other and they should
actually break up and so he was not
happy with that but he said you know
Chrissy let’s have one night together
and we’ll practice drinking because
you’ve never really drunk you want to be
an actress I haven’t really drawn
godlike – after myself so let’s do this
together we’ll have this one last night
she agreed they started drinking and she
like Sally collapsed with liquor well
she didn’t know is that the ex boast her
guy took out a camera and proceeded to
rape her and he filmed the wait they
broke up she went on in her life she
fell in love with Freda a wonderful
attractive woman they are now both of
them on YouTube and they have a great
audience and they do LGBT rights and
their strong campaigners they make a
great couple
so if she came in she said that one day
she’s you know on her website doing her
stuff on YouTube and she gets a link and
somebody writes her and says you’re
nothing about us
you’re a whore everything I believed in
you I don’t believe anymore how could
you she presses on a link and of course
it’s the video from the rape four years
before which he never knew existed she
descended into a deep depression she
became alcoholic suicidal she came to us
and she said what could you do so this
time I said all right we’re gonna use
all the tools we have in our chests as
lawyers and we’re gonna take you take on
the system and we’re gonna try and bring
change and we have been able to get
changed just a week ago we settled her
case she got what we called justice in
this world which is that we’ve got all
the vestiges of her video off the
internet and of course we had gone on
once and then it had gone viral so it
was all over the gutter all down
we got an apology from the man who did
it we’ve got an admission of liability
and without a whole lot of money
probably more money for her than any
other victim of revenge porn has ever
had now we’ve had other cases these are
two quite extreme cases in many ways but
we had a case for instance of a woman
just an ordinary woman anybody here who
came in to us and she was quite beside
herself because her face had been
photoshopped over the face of a naked
model and then had been put on the net
and then it had gone viral and we went
to I met her in New York City we were
walking after meeting down the theater
district and men and people would look
at her oddly I never had that experience
with a client before as we walked out
couple of beds stared hard and then one
man came up to her and said aren’t you
Ava she turned to me and she said how
many men have masturbated to my image
how many men I feel sexually terrorized
so this is revenge porn this is the
world we live in it’s the distribution
of intimate images without the consent
of the person whose picture is being
eighty and ninety percent of the victims
of revenge porn are women it is a gender
crime typically although there certainly
many men have been porn doll so when you
see it as a hate crime
it’s a crime of sexual violence and it’s
a cyber sexual assault why do people do
this they do it show their anger to be
dominant they do it for fun and kicks
and they do it for money and men do it
because they want in a way cowboy
justice they feel hurt maybe abused by
the woman and so they want to get even
and they want even even hard and fast
and so he validates his masculinity he
wants control he wants to shame her and
then very quickly as you know a jury of
internet trolls who see these pictures
we distribute them and they confirm his
opinion that this girl really deserves
what she’s getting you may recognize
this picture of Marilyn Monroe not as
sexually portrayed is often one might
see her it’s still the gorgeous woman in
1949 she posed nude for pictures
desperate for money to a photographer
Tom Kelly for $50 she then became
rapidly famous and by mid 50s she was
well known and all over the place and
her pictures were then sold by Tom Kelly
without her consent without her
knowledge for a whole lot of money and
she and her career were almost destroyed
but she fought back she dressed more
beautifully she was in more films she
took it on the cuff and she’s decided to
go forward so why would anybody send
naked pictures of themselves how does
that happen who would do that you do it
because of course it’s a sort of sexy
and a cold thing you do it because you
want your partner to be happy it’s an
active adult intimacy out of curiosity
you don’t have to raise your hand but
how many of you have sent pictures of
yourself intimate pictures of yourself
to someone does anyone want to volunteer
because most people have done this
and this crab clearly not you’re very
cautious
we had another case of a woman who
married man on the wedding night of a
beautiful wedding she had had somebody
prepare beautiful pictures boudoir
pictures of herself as a gift to her new
husband magnificent shots marriage
didn’t last and the man decided to put
them on the internet and to shame her
her career was destroyed she’s not been
able to get really excellent work since
and it’s hurt her so deeply so now it’s
the new normal of one might say half of
young people claim that they have sent
intimate pictures of themselves to
others and 1/8 of facebook users claim
as they have been the victims of her
going to pornography the youngest person
ever investigated for doing the wrench
pornography is a five-year-old and the
youngest victims so far who’s been
investigated for child porn is 11 a
victim of child porn of revenge porn I
say child because obviously at 11 she is
a child people say well the girls
deserve it
you know she deserved it she’s mean
she’s a slut she’s stupid you hear that
a lot that’s really the girl’s fault for
this and what happens is really pretty
serious we have cases all the time in
this area
and we find as women come in because
they’ve lost their jobs because pictures
have gone out that they didn’t even know
sometimes were taken they get sent with
their names and addresses and contact
details but over their social media
quite often and of course their family
friends parents sisters brothers see it
and it just really damages fundamentally
those relationships they get expelled
from school sometimes they’re ostracized
in their community and if they’re in a
child custody battle judges may well
take away the children of those women
who have been porned sometimes those
scriptures are used to threaten women to
come back to domestic relationships that
are abusive unless they don’t come back
they’ll put the porn pictures out and of
course we have a lot of cases women say
their details are up on the internet
with messages like you know she wants to
fuck you come on over
and so people fear men appear at women’s
houses looking for a good time and then
we have of course with a number of women
like Sally they commit suicide what does
the law do I mean the law is active
we’ve been very active as a law firm and
we have been very much involved in
getting it a crime here in Britain and
in 38 states United States we’ve got
revenge biography laws on the books but
the laws are weak as far as we try to
make them strong they’re still weak
there’s something there now but there’s
not enough so what happens in the UK if
you actually do it youporn somebody with
the intent of causing malice and harm
and distress you can go to jail for two
years if you’re found guilty but if you
do it because you’re out with your
friends and you just want have a good
time that’s not a crime and if you do it
to make money that’s not a crime in this
country either there are 3,000 revenge
porn sites in the United Kingdom right
now and it’s a flood it’s getting worse
all the time people are using their
iPhones younger and younger people are
sexting
this is part of the future and of course
the police are restricted because they
can only go after the perpetrators they
can’t go after the domain sites that
host the pornography or the credit card
companies that make money off of them
and have an incentive to keep that those
pictures going round and round and round
so we need more internet you know
investigative officers people are
trained to do something about this we
need to have a way so that people who
are porn can go after the person who did
it and get civil damages so you can
actually incentivize them not to do this
and make them pay if they do and we need
moral and political will to change the
problem to cure this problem one of
things we could do and it’s been talked
about is to get actually videos of women
men who are about to be porn where they
have to consent they gave their driver’s
license there they’re you know
identifiers or passports and that person
says look I am so-and-so I’m over the
age of consent and I know what these
pictures are and they describe the
pictures
and I’ve consented them going up on the
Internet now that could be done really
easily of course we’re gonna have to
have a law to make that happen
something like that could be done it
would stop the garden-variety
revenge pouring clearly it may not stop
the sex workers from being bullied and
cowed into consenting but certainly
would stop a lot of the problem very
very fast there were other things that
have been done in the 70s I worked with
a group of people who had credit card
receipts of men famous men judges police
officers senators heads of corporations
who would actually use prostitution
services and we’ve got these receipts
and actual proof and we’re able to go to
the Hartford Courant a big paper in
Connecticut and on the front page on a
Sunday morning where the names of all
these men that we could prove actually
use prostitution services I can assure
you with that the treatment of
prostitutes in the state of Connecticut
improved dramatically after that Sunday
morning other things we can do we can
name and shame people who actually run
those revenge porn sites so if your dad
owns that site you can let it be known
to the child to the wife you know this
is the business you’re in this is how
you’ve made your great money Facebook
Google reddit
the people who repost and credit card
companies who make money off of it they
should all have to be reined in there
should be a law to prevent that Jennifer
Lawrence studies and Jennifer Lawrence
had as most of you know her nude
pictures hacked they were stolen from
her she took a Marilyn Monroe approach
she looked everybody in the eye and she
said I am NOT a victim I am NOT going to
be shamed by this this is a sexual crime
that should be treated as such it’s not
funny when she calls for things
education about internet conduct there’s
a Girl Scout badge now an online badge
and Internet safety which when I was of
age of course never existed she calls
her gender respect we need to have more
gender respect so people don’t do this
and perhaps classes that you actually
take maybe two kids in school pictures
naked pictures and say say this is you
and you passed
and they go viral how are you gonna feel
about that you teach it in the schools
so that those doing it and maybe the
boys of an anger management problem
later they get to think about it first
and realize this is not a good thing to
do the last thing that maybe Jennifer
Lawrence teaches us is maybe it’s
actually time as a society that we think
about shame and what is shame and why is
it so effective and maybe being seen
with your clothes off in naked positions
maybe that shouldn’t be shameful maybe
we shouldn’t be embarrassed and we
should somehow teach next generation to
protect themselves at least that way so
they have become emotional wrecks crazy
Chambers is here now the case is over
I’m there with her and she’s now
legislating for more reform she’s
campaigning
she took the Marilyn Monroe the Jennifer
Lawrence approach and she says no you
can only feel shame if you let yourself
feel shamed and we have to stop that and
she’s now a hero to many many many young
girls who are also joining her to fight
back I ask you to fight back to thank
you [Applause]
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