Friday, December 6, 2019

SEXUAL HARASSMENT @ FACEBOOK

The Equality Act of 2010 defines sexual harassment  as "unwanted conduct of a sexual nature which has the purpose or effect of violating someone's dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for them." According to Australian Human Rights Commission, examples of sexually harassing behavior include:
  • suggestive comments or jokes
  • sexually explicit pictures or posters
  • requests for sex
  • intrusive questions about a person's private life or body
  • insults or taunts based on sex
  • sexually explicit emails or SMS text messages
  • obscene phone calls
Similarly, the Project deSHAME  report, online sexual harassment is defined as unwanted sexual conduct on any digital platform and is recognised as a form of sexual violence. Online sexual harassment encompasses a wide range of behaviors that use digital content (images, videos, posts, messages, pages) on a variety of different platforms (private and public). It can make a person feel threatened, exploited, coerced, humiliated, upset, sexualised or discriminated against.

Sexual harassment is nothing new and it continues to be a severe and pervasive problem in our world today. What's wrong with our world today? Is society so sick to the extent that sex becomes as necessary as food and water and this biological need must be satisfied even though this would mean that the perpetrators would have to resort to sexual harassment? Sad to say, even young children can have a penchant for pornographic materials and are thus not exempted from sexually intrusive behavior as indicated by the more recent cases (Please click here to read about a 12-year-old boy who raped a 4 year-old girl and here to read about an 11-year-old boy who raped his 12-year-old cousin). We cannot deny the fact that there are many sex addicts out there who are psychologically sick, immature, and immoral who often resort to sexual violence or cyber sex to satisfy their unusual sexual desire. If they could find a willing partner and they are geographically separated (being remotely connected via computer network), perhaps not much harm can be done if they choose to remain anonymous to each other. However, with the use of a webcam to transmit real-time video of the partners, cyber sex can turn into a sextortion scam particularly when the perpetrators have the intention to blackmail.

Those who have strong cravings for sex ought to think twice when they receive a message of invitation to cyber sex as there are many sextortionists out there waiting to lure them into video calls encouraging them to masturbate, show their private parts, get nude or sexual and secretly record the victims' sex videos. The perpetrators would then threaten to make the video go viral unless the victims agree to pay a ransom. And of course these sextortionists would keep asking for more and more money until the victims go bankrupt. When the victims can no longer afford to come up with the money they ask for, these videos could still go viral.

Although sextortion can be very devastating for the victims, they should not panic but stay calm and seek help. The first thing a victim must do is to stop all contact with the sextortionist and stop paying him as it would only result in more demands for payment. Next, collect evidence, keep a record of all contact with the sextortionist and lodge a police report. Talking to family members or trusted friends can help to ease the pain as the victim needs their support. The victim may also seek the help of a counselor. Self-blaming should be avoided as this can happen to anyone and the victim is not alone. 

In this article, I would like to share snapshots of my conversation with a sex maniac from India @ Facebook. Although I ignored him totally, I still feel very upset about the whole thing because of his obscene behavior. I think this sex maniac / sexual addict must have some kind of behavioral or psychiatric disorder or he wouldn't be so desperate for sex. Or is he a sextortionist trying to make some easy money? Either way, it seemed that he did not know how to feel ashamed of his behavior as he kept pestering me with his unwanted calls and smses even though I totally ignored him. I admit that I was really enraged by his weird, disrecpectful, disgraceful, and irrational behavior. His nuisance calls in the wee hours of the morning were so annoying that I could not sleep and had to turn off my mobile data. I didn't understand why his calls could still reach me after I logged out of Facebook. To let go of the anger I feel towards him, I will publish snapshots of his entire conversation. These are arranged in chronological order below. Please click to enlarge the images.

He started the conversation telling me he was from India and was proud to be a Christian. That was his first message at Facebook Messenger.

Next, he started to call me but I declined his call. I told him that it was not necessary for him to call me as he could always leave his comments about my blog posts @ my blog or Facebook.

He then asked for my whatsapp number but I did  not give it to him. Could this be a sextortion scam? I told him to read the 'About Me' page in my blog if he wanted to know more about me. I don't have the habit of introducing myself as I have given a very clear description of myself in my blog. Looked like he was only interested in sex chat as he was too lazy to read anything about me. That was why he asked me where I'm from - a stupid question which I did not answer. 

He told me he had a Church in India and asked me if I would help poor Indian people. Who were these poor Indian people he referred to? Sex maniacs or sextortionists?

I did not access my Facebook until a few days later. Before I knew what was happening, he suddenly requested for sex chat and started to call me repeatedly even though I did not answer any of his calls. I also stopped replying his messages at that instant. Was his sexual behavior out of control? Or was he just trying to get some easy cash by offering his sex chat services? He may also be a sextortionist waiting to get a ransom. Do poor Indian people make money this way? 

He seemed to be very enthusiastic in offering his sex chat services as he kept calling me repeatedly in the wee hours of the morning. What a shame! I didn't even know him.

He kept requesting for sex, calling me, and asking me to call back. What on earth made him that think I would call back? The thought of him was nauseating. I couldn't help feeling that he was not only cheap but also hateful, irritating, annoying, and disgustingly dirty.

Not knowing how hateful and disgusting he was, he sent me messages requesting  for sex when I did not answer his calls . 

According to him, he was "in the mood" but that did not justify his obscene actions. He should seek help from a prostitute instead of begging for sex and pestering someone who is totally uninterested in his sexual services.

Why did he still call repeatedly knowing that I would NOT answer his calls? Shameless creature!

This sex maniac from India then sent a sex GIF.

He kept calling me and sending me messages even though I ignored him completely.

He sent the sex GIF again and again.

As you can see in the snapshots, I totally ignored his calls and messages but he was unrelenting in his attempt to request for sex. Why was it so difficult to get rid of this cheap guy?

Lastly, I blocked him @ Facebook. He should be thankful that I was kind enough not to report his sexual harassment to Facebook and erased his face and name from the snapshots above. However, I am still wondering if I should expose his face to the whole world. 

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