Exclusive: Students from Australian schools targeted by sick pornography ring

FEMALE school students are being named and “hunted” by a perverse pornography ring – and Tasmanian schools are on the group’s “hit list”.

A perverse pornography ring has published thousands of images of girls, many of them underage, without their permission. Picture: iStock

WARNING: Graphic content

MORE than 70 Australian schools are targets for a perverse pornography ring of teen boys and young men secretly swapping and exchanging graphic sexual images of female students and other nonconsenting women.

News.com.au can reveal more than 2000 images have been posted or traded by Australian members since the group began operating in December last year.

Young men use the site to nominate the specific high school or region they are phishing for nude photos from, along with the full names of girls they are “hunting”. Hundreds of individual names have appeared on “wanted” lists, including the names of sisters and entire high school friendship circles.

Once a girl’s name appears on a list, other members of the group then “contribute” by posting identifying information about the intended victim, such as her full name, face, school, home address, and phone number, along with directives such as “Go get her boys!”

Any “wins” – a term referring to nude photos – of the nominated target are then uploaded or offered in exchange for a trade. Some targets are so sought after that “bounties” have been offered for any user who can post a “win”.

In one case, one user offered to trade up to 300 nude images of other victims, in exchange for a single nude photo of the one girl he was currently tracking. Another user said he had been trying to unearth nude images of a particular victim for more than five years.

Here are just a few of the thousands of comments from the site*:

“Anyone have any [school’s name] wins?”

“I’ve got heaps of [school’s name] girls. Kik me if you wanna trade!”

“I ripped these from a computer I was asked to fix a few years ago.”

“Who has nudes of this *****? I hear she throws it around!”

“I’ll [upload] all [the nudes] I have if people start looking for [schools’ names] girls, or any hot *****”.

“I’m posting pretty much all the hottest little teens I have. All high quality images from [schools’ names] etc.”

“What do you want for the **** * wins bro?”

“I’ll pay good money to see **** *******, anyone have any of her?”

“Let’s make this huge!”

THOUSANDS OF IMAGES UPLOADED

So far thousands of explicit images of teen girls and young women have been uploaded or traded on the swap-meet site. Some high school girls are pictured performing sexual acts while wearing their school uniform. Other images on the site include graphic close-ups of victim’s genitalia and breasts, and photos of young women engaged in penetrative sexual acts.

The site has been reported numerous times to police for child pornography, but so far they say they are unable to act because the site is hosted overseas.

Since its creation, multiple victims have also posted on the site, pleading with the young men to remove their images. Their requests are mostly ignored, laughed at, or in some cases, men retaliate by calling on their “bros” to unearth and upload even more images of the victim.

One young woman who begged for images of her friend to be removed, then had her own name added to the wanted hit-list as punishment.

Another young woman who stated that some of the victims might be “suicidal” was told that it was her fault for behaving like a “slut”, and that her images now belonged “to the internet”.

Most victims, however, appear to have no idea they are even on the site. Users of the site have deliberately tried to conceal their activities from victims by writing the names of targets in a simple code which prevents the girls from searching their own names. “Ellie”, for example, might be written as 3ll13, or “Amanda” as @m@nd@.

School names are also written in code to prevent high schools from detecting that their students are being targeted.

Yet a review of the site has found that at least 70 Australian school names have been mentioned by users requesting “wins” of current or recently graduated students.

In total the site mentions 28 high schools in NSW, 18 in Queensland, 15 in Victoria, five in the ACT, two in South Australia and two in Tasmania.

The site also encourages users to post their “wins” based on location, so that men and boys can study nude images of girls and women who they might know in real life. The site has at least 55 distinct individual threads organised by regions in Australia from urban hubs such as Ryde in Sydney to regional centres such as Orange and Cessnock.

Hundreds of individual names have appeared on “wanted” lists.

‘BEHAVING LIKE A PACK OF HYENAS’

The discovery of the website follows a number of recent related scandals involving students at Brighton Grammar, Melbourne Grammar and St Michael’s Grammar School in Melbourne.

Users on this swap-meet website have also picked up on the media coverage of those scandals and have sought to uncover the original images which appeared on the Brighton Grammar “Young Sluts” Instagram account.

One website user, who admits to being a former Brighton Grammar student, comments that he finds the matter – including the exploitation of primary school girls – hilariously entertaining.

Sharna Bremner, from End Rape on Campus, says she felt “physically sick” when she learned of the website and its contents.

“These boys and men are behaving like a pack of hyenas hunting their prey, and then sharing the spoils with the rest of the group,” she said.

“They’re reducing girls to objects and trophies to be traded like nothing more than swap-cards in the playground.”

Ms Bremner says charges should be laid against those responsible and that the mentality of these men closely mirrors that of a rapist.

“There are already plenty of consensual adult nude images online that are easily accessible. But these boys and men are not interested in that, because it’s not the nudity alone that they are after,” she said.

“What they are getting off on is the very fact that these images are not consensual and that the victims have no idea they are being exploited.”

Ms Bremner also notes that the users are not searching or categorising the images based on particular physical preferences or fetishes, such as a desire for “big boobs, or blondes, or redheads or whatever”.

“They are hunting women and girls who live in their area and sorting them according to geography. It’s the idea of proximity and accessibility that is considered arousing,” she said.

“The thrill is not just that they might see the girl who sits next to them in maths class, it’s also that they can put in an order for the girl from maths class. What these boys are really getting off on is the sense of power they feel over these girls, and the idea that they can own and obtain them like objects.”

Ms Bremner said she can “absolutely see this [website] leading to acquaintance rape”.

“If you’re a young guy who has been told by your peers that getting images without consent is a good thing, that it gets you pats on the back, then just imagine the accolades you’ll get for physically taking advantage of a girl,” she said

“This group doesn’t just normalise the idea that consent is irrelevant and doesn’t matter, it actively encourages boys to ignore and violate consent.”

The NSW Sex Crimes Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Linda Howlett says it “is a criminal offence to take, transmit or possess images that are considered child pornography”.

“This also applies to teenagers, who are reminded that the dissemination of any material depicting nudity or sexual activity involving young people could constitute a criminal offence,” she said.

“They should be aware they could be arrested and charged and, if convicted, end up with a criminal record.”

Police are encouraging any victims to come forward and report it.

If you have further information or would like to report concerns contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or the Child Protection Helpline on 132 111.

If you or someone you know has been affected by sexual assault or exploitation, support is available at 1800 RESPECT and Kids Helpline 1800 551 800.

* Quotes from the website have been slightly edited to prevent reverse searching.