Image courtesy of Pixabay

This month’s blog was going to be about something else entirely, but then I read a piece about a woman who won a law suit against her ex. The ex broke up with her and then shared her nude pics and videos with her friends, classmates, and pornographic websites.  This story persuaded me to write about the hazards of sharing suggestive media with anyone, even your significant other.

A federal district court in California last week entered a default judgment against a man and ordered him to pay $6.45 million in damages after he was accused of spreading an ex-girlfriend’s naked pictures and videos online. While the woman in this story got a judgment in her favor, the pain and discomfort of the situation could have been avoided.

Here’s why you should never share intimate content with any partner.

We live in an age where there is no such thing as privacy.  Anything you do, any picture or video you take, never goes away. Furthermore, sharing content with another person eliminates your ability to determine with whom that content is shared.

In the case of a romantic relationship, you never know what is going to happen and, if you break up, you don’t know what your ex might do to exact revenge. Odds are, your boyfriend shared these pics with his friends even if he didn’t post them on a dating site or other social media. If you have any designs on a career in public service, these pics are guaranteed to pop up at an inappropriate time in the future.

Undoing the damage is costly and complicated.  The woman in the California case had to get a copyright on her breasts in order to get her intimate pics removed from the internet. Why? Some websites refuse to remove images that were taken with consent if the person who consented to the pic does not register a copyright. Additionally, the CA woman filed her lawsuit in 2014, which means she endured four years of humiliation and loss of privacy while her case was adjudicated, in addition to the costly services of an attorney.

You are not an object! Refusing to send nudes to guys sends a message that you don’t want to be defined by your body. Respect yourself and your family by just saying no to nude pics. Think about what your dad would say if he saw these pictures of you.

Andrea Groth Wellbeing Detective

Andrea wants to live in a world where the neighborhoods are walkable, bike lanes are plentiful, and the food is fresh, delicious and readily available.

A 20-year veteran of the health and wellness industry, she started her career in the fitness industry while earning a master’s degree in Exercise Science and Health Promotion, and then on to the burgeoning field of worksite wellness. Andrea has competed in collegiate level soccer, worked as a personal trainer, fitness instructor, wellness coach, and master trainer, climbed 14ers, and completed cycling centuries and metric centuries. All of these experiences give her the opportunity to view well-being from many different perspectives.
When she’s not helping others to be their healthiest self, you can find her at a farm to table restaurant, down dogging at the yoga studio, or experiencing the Colorado landscape on a bicycle, snowshoes, cross country skis or on foot.