- By Amarachi
Imagine that you woke up one morning, only to find that you are trending on twitter…and, not in a good way? There are pictures of you, stark naked…and in the most compromising positions. Your nudes being shared and retweeted by even the most random people. You would want the earth to open up and swallow you, wouldn’t you? We at Shutlips certainly would!
Whether you admit it or not, many of us have sent a not so PG photo to someone at one point in our life, and although it’s implied that both parties are to keep such photos private, revenge porn is very prominent among our society today! Having your nudes leaked can be emotionally traumatizing, especially when it has been done by someone you thought you could trust or love. Other times, it may not even be you or your lover’s fault that your nudes were leaked.
Someone may have had unauthorized access to your personal device. Having your nude photos or videos leaked is an invasion of privacy and counts as a violation of rights – you own the copyright to your nudes but unfortunately with apps like Snapchat created for the purpose of sharing sexy snaps and videos and the hopeless nature of the internet (plus the bottomless demand for porn) leaking of private content is almost now inevitable.
Unlike in the western parts of the world where a few high profile cases have led to laws banning revenge porn; Nigeria has no restrictive measures. Even more, there are no schemes dedicated to helping victims of revenge porn. Fortunately, there are a few things you can do, to avoid getting your nudes leaked in the first place:
1. DON’T DO IT: Ever heard of the word ‘abstinence’? Abstinence is the best form of protection. If you don’t want to be at risk of having your nudes leaked what better way to be safe than not take nudes?
2. AVOID CLICKING UNKNOWN EMAIL LINKS: Sometimes, you find emails from an unknown sender in your mailbox. There are chances that these emails have been sent by hackers trying to gain access to your device. Usually, these emails wind up in the spam section of your email, however, not all of them do. It would do you a great deal of good not to click on every link that shows up in your mailbox. You never know which one is being sent by a hacker.
3. IF YOU MUST SEND NUDES, WEAR LINGERIE AT LEAST!: You would agree with me that if you had your photos leaked and in those photos, you had a bra and panties on, it wouldn’t be as bad as having to be stark naked. Nudes don’t have to be completely naked….you can set your own boundaries. Should you choose to send nudes, wear some form of clothing or be strategic with your hands covering vital areas, just in case.
4. NEVER INCLUDE YOUR FACE: Yes, sending nudes with your face on can be tempting especially to someone you care about but it’s not a very good idea. You want to show him all of you and probably let him know that banging body belongs to you. It’s all good until he decides to play the devil’s advocate by leaking them. So, for the love of sexting, DO NOT DO IT. If he does leak them, you will have little fighting chance at pleading the fifth on that one.
5. AVOID UPLOADING PHOTOS TO THE CLOUD: If you do not want hackers to access your images, nudes or not, then you should consider not uploading to the cloud. It would be better to store your photos on a local drive with no internet access. iPhones by default uploads your photos to iCloud for backup purposes but you can change this in the settings.
6. GET HIS NUDE BEFORE HE GETS YOURS: Personally, I wouldn’t send you a nude if I don’t get one from you. This doesn’t mean I am interested in your d*ck pic. It only means I am getting myself collateral to keep you in check should you turn out to be a douche bag.
7. DON’T SEND UNDER THE INFLUENCE: Always make sure you have a clear head while sending nudes because you don’t want to hit ‘SEND’, and it pops up on Facebook. Also double-check to see that you are sending it to the right recipient.
Written by Amarachi Ezeibekwe, Content Lead at www.shutlips.com
