With the advent of new technology and more ways to share your life on social media than ever, it’s inevitable that those images, messages and emails can be shared with anyone and everyone in your circles. That’s a good thing when you need to circulate important information or just reconnect with friends and family. But it’s not so great when someone takes your personal information and puts it out there for all to see. The term “revenge porn” is relatively new and describes the process of seeking to humiliate and defame a person by distributing explicit photos of him or her – though it’s usually a woman. The motives for distributing revenge porn can vary – sometimes scorned boyfriends who are in possession of racy, explicit pictures only meant for he and his ex may decide to distribute those pictures purposely. Sometimes even emailed photos or those saved on a hard drive can be accessed if a computer or email account is hacked. When the right hackers get a hold of these scandalous images, it can be devastating for the person pictured – sometimes they even include the person’s full name, address and other contact information, such as her place of employment.

It’s understandable how photos that were meant to stay private could endanger a victim’s social life, livelihood and even personal safety. But many states are cracking down and making revenge porn illegal – it’s even considered a felony in at least 10 states. Thirty-four states currently penalize revenge porn, and more are working on legislation. Unfortunately, those who have been victims must expose themselves further to raise awareness of the issue and get those laws passed. There’s help out there from cybercrime lobbyists, such as End Revenge Porn, Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, Without My Consent and many more. And to remove those pictures from the blogs and other websites posting them illegally, the rights protection group, DMCA Defender, offers low-cost services to help get them off the Web.