No one has the right to share your intimate photos or videos without your consent.

If someone has taken, shared, or threatened to share your intimate photos or videos without your consent, it is never your fault. No one should be made to feel ashamed or believe they are to blame because someone else chose to violate their privacy or abuse their trust. Many acts of intimate image abuse are illegal in Cambodia. You can contact LICADHO for safe, confidential support.

Intimate image abuse is a type of gender-based violence emerging across Cambodia. LICADHO has documented 24 cases involving intimate image abuse since 2021, with more than one-third opened in the last 12 months alone. While these cases likely represent only a small fraction of those occurring in Cambodia, they reveal clear patterns of abuse.

Intimate image abuse includes taking, sharing, or threatening to share intimate photos or videos without a person's consent, regardless of whether the images were originally obtained with consent. Intimate images include photos or videos that depict nudity, partial nudity, or sexual acts. They include images that are real or generated by artificial intelligence.

The cases documented by LICADHO show that intimate image abuse often occurs alongside other forms of gender-based violence. Ten cases involved perpetrators filming rape or gang rape, and often later using those videos as threats or blackmail. In other cases, perpetrators first obtained intimate images through perpetrating online scams, recording children in private settings, recording consensual sexual activity without consent, threats and coercion, or further distributing images that had originally been shared consensually.

Perpetrators used intimate images to coerce, silence, and control women and girls. In at least 10 documented cases, perpetrators distributed intimate images or videos online or to a woman’s or girl’s family or community. In other cases, perpetrators threatened to distribute the content to coerce women and girls to engage in further sexual activity or produce additional intimate images. Other motives included stopping women and girls from reporting rape, exerting control following a breakup, and financial gain.

The cases demonstrate that intimate image abuse affects women and girls of different ages, and is perpetrated by both known and anonymous offenders. Half of those affected in the cases documented were girls aged from 13 to 17 years. Perpetrators included current or former boyfriends, family members, teachers, supervisors, people met online, and anonymous offenders.

The distribution of intimate images, or the threat that they may be shared publicly, can cause profound psychological harm. It can isolate women and girls from their families, communities, and schools, discourage them from reporting sexual violence, and form part of a broader pattern of abuse. Many women and girls never seek support because they fear stigma, retaliation, or further violations of their privacy. These women and girls deserve support to make informed decisions about their available options – not blame, shame, or further abuse. Responsibility for intimate image abuse only lies with the perpetrator.
Cambodian law criminalises some acts associated with intimate image abuse. Charges related to pornography, threats and extortion, and sexual harassment were applied in some of the cases documented by LICADHO. However, legal protections remain incomplete and responses are inconsistent. Stronger and more consistent responses to intimate image abuse and other forms of technology-facilitated gender-based violence are urgently needed to keep pace with these harms.

LICADHO calls on the Cambodian government to:

▪ Recognise intimate image abuse as a severe form of technology-facilitated gender-based violence by responding to cases with the same urgency and seriousness afforded to financial and other online crimes.
▪ Strengthen the capacity of law enforcement and judicial authorities through specialised training, technical skills, and adequate resources to conduct prompt, effective, and survivor-centred investigations.
▪ Ensure access to justice and support services are survivor-centred and free from blame and stigma. People affected should be able to choose the gender of the authorities they interact with, and intimate images should only be accessed by the minimum number of authorised personnel when strictly necessary and with strict privacy and confidentiality safeguards.
▪ Apply existing criminal charges when appropriate, including charges relating to sexual violence, extortion, threats, and the non-consensual production or distribution of pornography.
▪ Increase public awareness that intimate image abuse is a serious and often criminal form of gender-based violence that causes profound and lasting harm.

If you have experienced intimate image abuse, you are not alone. Many women and girls have experienced similar harms, and what happened is not your fault. LICADHO provides confidential, non-judgemental information about your available options. LICADHO will not ask to see your intimate photos or videos. Everyone has the right to decide whether and how to seek support.