Kevin Bollaert's Revenge Porn Conviction: Why Most Other Perpetrators Go Unpunished

Kevin Bollaert reportedly burst into tears as his victims recounted stories of their lives being ruined by revenge porn. They included both men and women whose explicit images were posted on Bollaert’s website YouGotPosted.com without their permission. After accepting the images, usually uploaded by disgruntled ex-partners, Bollaert would extort money from them through another website that he owned, called ChangeMyReputation.com

"I ended up in mental hospitals twice because of this, [...] I just want my life to get back to the way it was,” said one victim, who testified anonymously before the court.

Bollaert is far from the only person to post people’s nude photos on the web without their permission, but he’s one of the few to make tens of thousands of dollars from the enterprise. He reportedly was making $900 per week shaking down victims. That’s one of the reasons why he is one of the first people to be convicted of crimes related to “revenge porn.” Specifically, he was charged with 27 federal counts, including extortion and identity theft.

Like most website operators, he wasn’t liable for the actions of people who upload the photos in the first place. In most states, those types of people aren’t actually committing criminal offenses. The result is a hazy legal path for victims. Consider the people who submitted to Bollaert’s site. If they uploaded information photos, they could be sued in civil court for defamation. But depending on the state they’re from, they wouldn’t be committing a crime.

“These crimes don’t fall under [most] extortion or cyberstalking laws,” said Holly Jacobs, 31, Founder and Director of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. “Victims have to have hundreds of dollars to go after [perpetrators], who are often ex-boyfriends living at home with their parents; they don’t have anything [to pay in a civil case].”

Jacob stresses that it’s not about money, it’s about justice. The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative identifies 16 states that have passed some form of revenge porn legislation. For example, a 2013 California law now makes posting revenge porn a misdemeanor punishable by up to 6 months in prison and a $1,000 fine. The Initiative points to 7 reasons why a new Illinois law is the most effective, including strong punishments and a narrow focus that respects the first amendment.

Did Jacobs think that Bollaert’s punishment was just?

“Absolutely, He not only extorted money from them, but was ruining their lives.” Pointing to the impossibility of scrubbing images from the internet, she said that people will see those images “when they apply for a job, when they try to meet a new partner... when they have kids, and their kids Google their name.”