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Revenge Porn Devastates Its Victims, But There Is Help

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- It's called revenge porn -- graphic pictures posted online by angry ex's for everyone to see.

"It's definitely been tough," says one local victim.

It can leave its victims devastated.

"Last semester when everything happened I ended up withdrawing from school and that was really hard."

On Monday, "Laura" told her story to KDKA's Jon Delano.

Delano: "Did you ever think that something like this could happen to you?"

Laura: "Never. Never in a million years. I mean you sometimes see news stories about girls that this happens to, but you never think that that could be me."

Laura was a victim of one of the most vicious forms of on-line bullying: revenge porn.

"Typically, the female in the relationship has sent pictures to boyfriend, and boyfriend has those images, and then when they break up, boyfriend gets upset and puts them on revenge porn websites or social media websites as a way to humiliate the former girlfriend," said attorney Liz Euler.

Euler has counseled Laura and other victims.

Laura admits she sent a former boyfriend eight explicit photos.

"They were pornographic in nature, not something I would want anyone to see."

She's hardly alone.

"It's something way more common than people realize -- I mean older people. People my age -- it's pretty common," says Laura.

And while younger women may do it more, Attorney Euler adds, "I've been surprised with the number of a 40 and 50-year-olds that have been dealing with this situation."

"I completely trusted my boyfriend. I never expected anything like this to happen to me," noted Laura.

Last fall, her photos, along with her name and contact info, suddenly appeared on a revenge porn website. And fake social media accounts in her name suddenly popped up.

"A Twitter account was created in my name. And they followed people from my town and my high school and they posted my pictures, and that's when everybody found out about it. All my friends. There was definitely a lot of shame and embarrassment there."

So what can you do?

Laura's mother, "Lucy," recalled the first step.

"We did everything we could to take our social media out and take our sites down," said Lucy.

"Then we contacted a lawyer right away."

Pittsburgh-based law firm K&L Gates, where Euler works, has launched a Cyber Civil Rights Pro Bono Initiative with free legal help for victims.

And there are other sources of help.

"A great resource is the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. And they are set up to help victims like my daughter," added Lucy.

Getting naked pictures taken down can be a challenge, especially if the revenge porn site is overseas or unreachable.

Since Laura had taken the photos herself, she owned the copyright.

Facebook and Twitter move quickly, but others require a 'cease and desist' letter from a lawyer.

And once the photos are out there the fact is it's not over. It can happen again anytime.

Laura's family has hired DMCA.com to monitor the internet and move aggressively if her photos ever reappear.

Laura's ex-boyfriend denies any involvement in the posting of these pictures and forensic science has not yet found the perpetrator.

Pennsylvania has a limited revenge porn law that makes it a misdemeanor in some cases, but so far there's no one to charge.

In the meantime, Laura has returned to school, after learning a hard lesson.

Delano: "All of us forget that the internet is everywhere."

Laura: "Yeah."

Delano: "And there are no secrets."

Laura: "There's really not."

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