Why any kids who shared video of alleged rape should be charged

OPINION: It’s time police play hardball with teenage boys who share explicit videos of underage girls. Under current laws they can and should be charged.

OPINION

STUDENTS at a Sydney high school who shared a video of a fellow classmate allegedly raping an unconscious teenage girl at a party could face charges under child pornography legislation.

A 15-year-old Cranbrook Grammar student has been charged with sexual assault, while a Rose Bay Secondary College student has pleaded not guilty to making and distributing footage of the attack.

Both are entitled to the legal presumption of innocence and I make no comment about their involvement in the case.

Under current laws anyone who forwarded the video could also potentially be charged under child pornography legislation, because both the teenage girl and the alleged perpetrator were under the age of 18.

And so they should.

Any person who films a rape or distributes a video of a rape being committed should be charged with a crime, regardless of how old that victim is.

I’ve worked with other young women who have experienced this kind of victimisation. And what they go through is horrific. I’ve heard it described as “a never ending assault”, “a virtual gang rape” or “a gang rape by proxy”.

Indeed, when rapes are filmed, the process of recovery is that much more difficult for the victim, precisely because the sense of violation is unending. The event can never be contained, and for the rest of that victim’s life she or he will live with the knowledge that other people may be recruited to witness — and thus participate in — their humiliation, degradation, powerlessness and shame.

Psychologically, the victim can feel arrested in time — stuck in a dehumanised state, while a growing audience amasses around them.

In discussing other cases where teenage rape victims have had their assaults filmed, Dr Anastasia Powell from RMIT University says that “victims describe feeling doubly-violated, shamed and humiliated … Even walking down the street becomes a traumatic experience with victims saying that they just do not know who or how many people may have seen those images, and they fear that someone will recognise them in the street.”

According to Dr Powell, another devastating element for a victim of filmed sexual assault, is that once a video is released the rape “has no finality”.

“There is no end point to the assault. It’s unending. Victims simply have no way of knowing who has and hasn’t seen the video, so everywhere they go becomes unsafe … It’s not just an ‘add on’ to the assault. It’s like a second assault.”

According to Powell, there is a disturbing culture emerging around such videos, where “images of sexual assault are deliberately being taken and distributed as a way to increase a man’s status within their peer group” and to “signal a particular form of masculine dominance or status”.

These videos then serve as “reminders”, “trophy videos” or “scorecards” which memorialise both the abuse, and the perpetrators’ domination and control. They then become the gateway through which other male students and teen boys can join-in the rape and be socialised into rape culture.

Which is precisely why anyone who aids and abets these perpetrators by sharing such a video, can and should be charged. In cases where the victim is under the age of 18, they can also be charged under specific child pornography legislation.

So what are schools and parents doing to address these issues?

In light of the distrubing report this week about the alleged rape by a student from Cranbrook, neighbouring Scots College school sent home a letter to all parents urging them to discuss the issues with their students, and informing them that a special assembly had been hosted to discuss the matter at school.

By contrast, Cranbrook Grammar sent home a letter to parents distancing the school from events, stating that “we are not able to disclose further details at this stage” except to say that “this incident did not occur on school grounds”.

Did not occur on school grounds? So what!

A school’s culture extends well beyond its school gates and, it should be noted, this is not an isolated incident at Cranbrook.

In 2013, two Year Nine students aged 15 from Cranbrook Grammar allegedly sexually penetrated a heavily intoxicated Year 8 girl at a party while a third male student reportedly filmed the act on his smartphone.

Three months after that incident, three Year Eight Cranbrook students were “encouraged to leave” the school, after they met with a 14-year-old girl on the grounds of Bronte Public School where they allegedly took turns engaging in sexual acts with her.

So what is the school doing to achieve cultural change?

While parents play a significant role, school environments set the culture that students are immersed in and they must address issues such as consent, respect for girls, bystander behaviour, and sexual assault within teen relationships.

Talking about or blaming social media and digital technology is not the answer. After all, the problem is not just the smartphones in their hands, it’s the attitudes in their heads.

Nina Funnell is a freelance writer and author. Follow her on Twitter @ninafunnell