WASHINGTON — Annmarie Chiarini's long-distance boyfriend was goading her to pose nude. The pictures would be for his eyes only, Chiarini recalls him saying, because she was so beautiful and because he missed her so much. He promised, she said, they would be stored on a compact disc and hidden in his drawer.
Chiarini believed him — until they broke up and the CD was auctioned on eBay with a link emailed to her friends and family. Copies were later mailed to her son's Catholic school kindergarten teacher and the department head at the college where Chiarini taught English. The images eventually wound up on a pornographic video-sharing site, earning 4,000 views in less than two weeks.
"I was horrified," said the 42-year-old single mom living in Towson, Md. "The night he said he was going to do it, I called the police in an absolute panic and tried to explain what was going on. I said, 'He's threatening to put these pictures of me on an eBay auction,' and they (said), 'So?' "
It's called "revenge porn," and it's legal in every state but California and New Jersey. A person shares a sexually explicit photo or video with a partner, only to see those images pop up online months or even years later, typically after a bad breakup. The images are often tied to the person's name, address and phone number. And in a particularly disturbing twist, some of the sites appear to be running side businesses offering "reputation protection services": Dump $500 into a PayPal account, and maybe they will take down your photo.
An increasing number of states, including Maryland, Wisconsin and New York, are considering whether to make it illegal to post any sexually explicit image online without that person's permission. But groups like the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation say they worry such proposals run afoul of the First Amendment.
"We generally don't think that finding more ways to put people in prison for speech is a good thing," said Adi Kamdar, an activist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "A lot of times, these laws — if they aren't narrowly focused enough — they can be interpreted too broadly."
Mary Anne Franks, a law professor at the University of Miami who is helping states draft revenge porn laws, counters that sharing a nude picture with another person implies limited consent similar to other business transactions.
"If you give your credit card to a waiter, you aren't giving him permission to buy a yacht," Franks said.