Singapore - More Singapore women seeking help with 'sextortion'

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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