Sexual predators edited my photos into porn - how I fought back | Noelle Martin | TEDxPerth

Who is the person behind the porn photo? Did she consent to that image being shared and viewed by thousands? What is the impact on her life? New media has seen an emergence of non-consensual distribution of intimate images. Often called "revenge porn," it is a devastating form of sexual assault for the victims who are degraded by porn consumers and slut-shamed by the public. (This talk contains mature content.)

Noelle Martin tells of her fight to reclaim her image. She shares the journey from victim to law reform activist striving for a global response to this global problem. Noelle Martin went from victim to survivor to law reform activist for the decriminalization of image-based sexual abuse. She fights to dismantle the shame and taboo around women's sexuality and the hyper-sexualization of women's bodies. She has fought for the decriminalization of image-based abuse in New South Wales and continues to lobby the Commonwealth Government to enact specific criminal laws to combat image-based abuse.

Noelle is completing her Bachelor's degree in Law/Arts, majoring in philosophy at Macquarie University, Sydney. Born and raised in Perth, she was the 2010 Western Australia's Women's Chess Champion and has worked as a chess teacher during her university studies.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

[This talk contains graphic language
and descriptions of sexual abuse]

Let me begin with a question.

Can I get a show of hands
who here has ever Googled themselves?

I have.

But what started off
as momentary curiosity

very quickly turned
into an almost five-year horrific battle

that almost ruined my life.

Now, before I continue, I must point out

that what I'm about to talk about
is very confronting and graphic.

But there's no way out.

This is a very confronting issue.

This is me at 17 years old.

An innocent selfie I took before a party.

I Google Images reverse-searched myself:

a function of Google
that allows you to upload an image,

and it shows you
where it is on the Internet.

In a split second,

my screen was flooded with that image

and dozens more images of me

that had been stolen from my social media,

on links connected to porn sites.

On these sites, nameless,
faceless sexual predators

had published highly explicit
sexual commentary about me

and what they'd like to do to me.

"Cover her face, and we'd fuck her body,"

one person wrote.

They also published
identifying information about me:

where I lived, what I studied, who I was,

but things got worse.

I soon discovered
that these sexual predators

had doctored or photoshopped my face

onto the bodies of naked adult actresses
engaged in sexual intercourse,

of me being ejaculated on by two men.

Sperm was edited onto my face.

I was edited onto the cover of a porn DVD.

Perpetrators had edited my images

to give the effect that my blouse
was transparent, or see-through,

so you could see my nipples.

Perpetrators ejaculated on images of me,

took photos of their sperm
and penises on these images

and posted them onto porn sites.

"Cum on printed pigs"
is what they call it.

Now, you might be wondering

what sorts of images
I posted on social media.

This is me, at around 19
at the Claremont Hotel,

just a few suburbs away.

And they superimposed that face into this.

And things got worse.

Nothing was off limits
for these predators.

They even posted an image
with my little sister on these sites too.

Now, you might be thinking,

"Well, you do dress provocatively,

even a little sexually suggestive,

attention seeking maybe."

But just because a woman's body
gets attention,

doesn't mean she's attention-seeking.

And what is provocative anyway?

What is sexually suggestive?

In some parts of the world,
showing your ankles is provocative.

It's just like,
no matter what a woman wears,

it's always perceived
as more sexual than it is.

For me, I just wanted
to feel pretty and confident.

What's so wrong with that?

Now, you might be thinking,

"Well, can't you just set
your social media on private?"

Well, these perpetrators were calculated.

They befriended my friends
on social media

under fake profiles.

They followed the public galleries

of the events and places
I regularly visited.

Why should one have to retreat and hide

out of fear that something
like this could happen?

What I post and what I wear

isn't an invitation
to violate and abuse me.

The only person that should be
changing their behavior

is the perpetrators.

(Applause)

Now, you might be thinking, "Why me?"

Well I'm just one
of the thousands upon thousands

of ordinary women
who are being preyed upon

in these mass-scale, horrific,
online cultures, websites and threads

that are dedicated
to sexually exploiting and doctoring

ordinary images of women into porn.

As I speak,

there are women who are being preyed upon
and they don't even know it.

In the beginning, I tried seeking help.

I went to police;
I contacted government agencies.

I even tried to hire
a private investigator,

but they were too expensive.

But there was nothing that they could do.

I mean, what could you do

when the sites are hosted overseas
and the perpetrators are from overseas?

I was told I had to contact
the sites one by one,

notifying the web masters

to get everything deleted.

And so, as you can imagine,

in complete and utter fear and pain,

I did.

I contacted the web masters,

requesting that they delete
the material shared without consent.

And I had some successes,

but I also had some major setbacks.

The more I fought,

the more sites I would discover,

and with time, the more my images
were being seen and shared

in the tens of thousands.

I had one web master respond to me,

saying he'll only delete the site

if I sent him nude photos
of myself within 24 hours.

And this went on for years,

fighting against these dodgy,
disgusting sites.

But I was fighting a losing battle,

and I couldn't continue this
any longer for my own mental health.

But what could I do?

Maybe, I thought,

if I spoke out,

I could reclaim my name,

and I could rewrite my narrative
on my own terms.

Maybe if I spoke out,
I could raise awareness about this.

Maybe I could even try to change the law.

And so I did.

(Applause)

I spoke out publicly late last year,

and news of my story
reverberated around the world.

But this was the response.

"She's a fat, ugly slut."

"She's a whore."

"She's an attention-seeking
piece of trash."

"Feel flattered, baby, it's a compliment."

I was victim-blamed and slut-shamed

and told I was deserving
of what happened to me.

And quite frankly,

that was more difficult for me to endure

than my actual experiences
of image-based abuse.

But I couldn't let
this criticism defeat me.

I knew what the perpetrators
had done was wrong,

and I knew what they were doing
to others was wrong.

And so, I petitioned.

I sent out impassioned pleas for support.

But it didn't work.

I think I got like 330 signatures,

and that was really disheartening.

But I then contacted
my state and federal MPs,

and I was referred to the New South Wales
Attorney General's Department,

who were already in the process
of drafting new laws

to criminalize the non-consensual
distribution of intimate images:

image-based sexual abuse.

Some of you may know it as revenge porn.

And soon, I became a spokesperson,
a public face for the new laws.

But I must point out,

I do not in any way, shape or form,
want to take credit

for this change in the law.

This is on the backs
of cybersafety experts,

of researchers,

of the Attorney General's Department,

of so many people
who have fought for years.

But for the first time ever,

New South Wales was the first
state in all the world

to specifically include a provision
on altering images.

Something that happened to me,

something you certainly
don't hear about very often.

And now ACT has also criminalized this,

also with a provision on altered images.

And next year, WA
is introducing legislation,

and hopefully, they introduce
a provision on altered images.

And I urge every state and every country
in this world to follow suit

because right now, there's no justice
for people like me.

Despite it all,

despite the hate
and despite the criticism,

despite the fact that I'm never
going to get justice,

because my experience has happened
before this movement of law reform,

speaking out was the best thing
I've ever done,

because I know for a fact
that it's helped people.

And I just want to live in a world

where regardless of what I wear
or what I post,

that I'm still worthy of being treated
with dignity and respect.

Respect.

Now, that's an idea worth sharing.

(Applause)

Thank you.

(Applause)