Six years ago, when university student Jane broke up with
her boyfriend, he threatened to make public explicit photos and videos of her
unless she got back together with him.
"He said that if I didn't,
he would post the pictures on the Internet," said Jane, now 26 and working
in customer service. "I was too scared to report it because I didn't want
to risk my family finding out."
While Jane's former boyfriend
ended his threats after two months, her situation is one that appears
increasingly common, say counsellors and legal experts.
Counsellors at the Association
of Women for Action and Research (Aware) said they started noticing women
calling its helpline with such complaints about three years ago. The group had
never received calls of this nature before 2008, but now averages about five a
year, said Aware executive director Corinna Lim.
The numbers are small, but they
may be just the tip of the iceberg, said family lawyer Anamah Tan.
"It's probably much worse,
but the rate of reporting is low," she said. "It's usually like that.
You know you have to file a police report and get him charged, but that means
you will have to expose yourself in a sense."
The typical scenario the
callers face involve a boyfriend or ex-boyfriend threatening to make public
compromising photos, or distribute them to a specific person, such as a husband
in the case of an extramarital affair or parents, said Ms Lim.
Reasons for blackmail include
extortion of money or sexual favours, and taking revenge for a past hurt, she
said.
She attributed the rise in such
cases to the cheap availability of video technology and cameras.
"It's especially true for
young people who are naive, experimental and who love taking photos and videos
of themselves," she said, adding that most women who sought help in such
cases were between the ages of 20 and 40.
She said: "With smart
phones and social networking sites, digital images are created and shared so
much that people tend not to think through the potential consequences of
sharing photos."
When dealing with such calls,
the first step is to ascertain if the blackmailer actually has the photos or
videos, she said.
Helpline volunteers then direct
callers to make a police report, engage a lawyer, or attend counselling.
As the photos may have been
taken consensually, there is often a lot of self-blame and shame by the victim,
said counsellors.
"So one of the first
things we do is to try to help them understand it is not their fault,"
said Ms Grace Phua, a women's counsellor who has seen two such cases.
Criminal lawyer Shashi Nathan
from Inca Law, who handled one case two years ago, said that publishing the
photos could be considered an indecency offence. However, this would likely
result in a less serious sentence, such as a fine.
The more serious charge would
be that of making threats, he said.
"Depending on what is
being requested in exchange for not posting the photographs, it could either be
considered a case of criminal intimidation or extortion," he said.
"There are no privacy laws in Singapore, but the issue will be that a
threat was made."
He added that the police would
want to know how the picture was taken, but this should not deter women from
making a report.
"Even if it was taken with
her permission, that doesn't give any person the right to publish it," he
said. "The woman should not allow herself to be bullied - she has nothing
to fear."
Ms Lim said more education
should be targeted at younger women, such as late teens, to nip the problem in
the bud.
Mrs Laura Hwang, president of
the Singapore Council of Women's Organisations, said the emergence of such
cases should put other women on higher alert.
"It's another cause for
being more careful and considerate of yourself. Maybe the younger ones do it
for a laugh, but it may come back to haunt them," she said.
Jennani Durai
The Straits Times
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