revenge porn

Imagine surfing the Internet and stumbling across pictures of yourself naked and finding out an ex had posted them to get back at you. That's revenge porn.

It happens when people's intimate photographs and/or videos have been disseminated on the Internet without their consent, usually by an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend. It includes "cell-phone nudes," or sexts, submitted by scorned exes, embittered friends, and/or malicious hackers posted next to the subject's name, location, and social media information.

"Sextortion" refers to sexual exploitation in which abuse of power is the means of coercion, especially when threatened release of sexual images or information is the means of coercion.

Historical perspective: In June 2017, Facebook investigated nearly 54,000 potential cases of revenge pornography and sextortion on the social media network in one month. The company disabled more than 14,000 accounts over such content; 33 of the cases involved children.