FREEPORT, Maine — As Maine State Police detectives continued to search this week for the person or persons who posted dozens of naked photos of underage girls from across Maine on Facebook, advocates for victims of sexual assault encouraged the teens and others to remember they were victims of a crime and should seek support if necessary.
The creator of the original page — a “community” Facebook page that allowed immediate public access — at first posted photos of fully clothed teens along with “threats like, ‘You’re next’ or ‘State your case or I’m posting what I have for images,’” Detective David Armstrong of the Maine State Police Computer Crimes Task Force said in late August.
The posts encouraged people to submit photos of former girlfriends or boyfriends.
Despite pleas by some teens in the comments, the nude photos were subsequently posted. Each time Facebook took down a page, another went up with new photos of the girls, which law enforcement said was devastating to the teens.
Although several pages created to “support” the victims quickly drew followers, online comments were often harsh, criticizing the girls for taking what police say appear to be explicit “selfies.”
“I think we always ask, ‘Why did she do that? Why did that person take that photo or send that photo?’” Cara Courchesne, communications director for the Maine Coalition Against Sexual Assault, said. “Maybe we should be asking that question, but we should also be asking, ‘Why did somebody do something with that photo that they did not have permission to do?’ That’s never the question we ask after that. … The question is never, ‘Why did someone break someone’s trust and forward the photo?’ The first and only question is, ‘Why did that person take that photo?’ You might as well be asking, ‘Why did that girl have a drink that night?’”
Furthermore, Courchesne said, anyone with the inclination to “throw stones” must remember that teenagers’ brains work differently, and adolescents don’t always make decisions in their own best interest.
“So many girls we hear from say, ‘I did it because I wanted someone to like me, because I thought it would make me popular,’” she said. “I don’t think anyone should be throwing stones with regard to that. I think we can all agree we’ve done something because we wanted someone to like us, we wanted to be popular — especially when that’s so much of what their brains are focused on.”
This “image exploitation” is a type of sexual violence, Courchesne said. “When someone decides to forward a message without someone’s consent, they’re committing an act of violence. … It’s also a victimization and violation of someone’s body. Victims feel exposed, they feel very frightened — their reactions are often similar to the reactions of a sexual assault victim.”
The victims “end up feeling like they don’t have options, that their lives are over,” in part because they often have no one they trust to talk to, Courchesne said. She suggested victims talk to an adult “who isn’t shaming them for their behavior.”
Sexual assault support agencies across the state have 24-hour numbers with staff who “deal with these issues all the time,” she said. “They’re well-versed in presenting information and options.”
Courchesne said it’s difficult to determine how many girls and women have been victims of this or similar crimes such as “revenge porn.” But she recalled a news conference earlier this year at which Maine Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, spoke of a bill, since enacted, that makes such postings punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
Fredette referred to a map of the state, Courchesne said, “and we ran out of push pins to include all the locations of people who had experienced revenge porn. My response was, ‘You’d need a lot more than that because a lot of people haven’t reported it. A lot of people don’t think they have recourse — and until the legislation was passed, they didn’t.’”
The recent Facebook postings were not the first time Maine has faced image exploitation incidents.
In March, a teacher at John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor died of apparent suicide during an investigation into an allegation that he posed as a younger person and solicited nude photos from a female student.
A month later, an 18-year-old Abbott man was charged with a number of sex crimes after police said he received and shared pornographic images of an underage girl on his cellphone.
Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said Thursday the investigation remained active and there had been no new developments.
To reach a sexual assault advocate, call the Statewide Sexual Assault Crisis and Support Line at 800-871-7741, TTY 888-458-5599. This free and confidential 24-hour service is accessible from anywhere in Maine. Calls are automatically routed to the closest sexual violence service provider.