Last week we told you about the national symposium on the sexual exploitation of children. It takes many forms, from commercial arrangements made by parents on behalf of their children, to photographing or videotaping children engaged in pornographic acts, to dissemination of those images.
And in the digital age - any video or picture just needs to be captured once - and "click/zap" it goes viral, travelling around an entire community via Bluetooth, or zipped around the world on email.
It's just plain vile when pornographers and sensation-seekers circulate pictures or video of children and minors using those means - and there's a disturbing number of those files going around - but what about when the picture or video is bogus, part of a malicious smear campaign initiated by a faceless, placeless predator bent solely on electronic character assassination?
That's what happened to Emaun Hyde. It's a story that hits home directly for me and for all of us here at Channel 7, but a story that nonetheless needs to be told because while it was my daughter today, in this digital era where everything is transferrable with the push of a "send" button, it could be your child tomorrow - victimized and his or her reputation vandalized, even if the whole thing is pure fiction.
But the effects...I can tell you, those aren't fictional, they are very real ….That's what Janelle Chanona found out when she spoke to my family:...
Seventeen year old Emaun Hyde is an average teenager: energetic, ambitious and full of big dreams. But for the past year, Emaun and her family have been living a nightmare...a nightmare that has changed her life forever.
Emaun Hyde
"I was just at school, going to class like a regular day and one of my classmates from high school came to me and in a very serious way he's like, Emaun. I'm like what? He's like, did you ever make a video? And I'm like what are you talking about? And he told me that basically there's a video going around, a pornography video, and everybody was saying it was me. And in my head I was automatically like, what? Where did that come from? No.
I got a copy of it, watched it, laughed at how ridiculous it is cause it was clear as day that it was not me. And I basically just ignored it, laughed about it."
But what Emaun decided to treat as a passing joke became the talk of the town as the video file, under the heading "Mose Hyde's daughter", was mass emailed to hundreds of people in Belize and abroad.
You leave room for people to say, she just deh seh dah no she because that's the way we think. The second way is to just ignore it which also isn't good because people seh, oh, she no have nothing fu seh, it's her.
The collective conclusion shattered Emaun's life as she knew it.
Emaun Hyde
"I think the lowest point I reached was when everyday things began becoming really hard to deal with. Walking to class you'd hear comments, people would shout things at me, getting completely disrespectful messages on everything, walking down the street and having people point and stare and you know what they are thinking, that had to have been one of the lowest points. You do get angry and you do get frustrated and you get sad and maybe even depressed to point where you are like wow, won't things be easier if I weren't here? I was there."
Desperate to take control of the situation, Emaun and her parents, 7News anchor woman Indira Craig and Krem talk show host Evan "Mose" Hyde, launched an intensive investigation with the help of friends in information systems to source of the internet file. The search led to a US based porn website...and a porn star named Kitty Yung, perversely celebrated for her juvenile appearance. In that moment of discovery...
Emaun Hyde
"I was just dancing. I was like completely elated because now I have proof that it is not me. And anyone who dares to bring anything that it's me I can show that to them and convince them it's not. But after a while I realized hmm, even if I show them that video on the internet, they might say oh, they just put that up there...you always have people that will think in the very worse ways."
Indira Craig, Emaun's Mother
"We knew it wasn't her, how to be able to find that, to establish that and to have people believe, concretely with the evidence, was the part that got us, it was so elusive and it made us, it made me, so frustrated."
Evan "Mose" Hyde, Emaun's Father
" The normal everyday Belizean child who experience a thing like this would ah be challenged first of all to get that type of support network, the level of burden whe this sort of thing present and I think that is the most important thing we have to get out to people, that you know, the society is in such a form that, in this case this was such a form of complete fabricated attack. But even if it was Emaun, in that footage, man, listen, the support would still have to be 100% because it would still be a very vile act to push it out."
So even as they continue to deal with the cyber smear campaign, Emaun and her parents made the decision to go public.
Emaun Hyde
"Because this can happen to anyone when you think about it. I did nothing wrong and this entire situation occurred. And when you think about it, if I'm able to stand up against it, come out with it and finally say it's not me. But say, "You need to be careful" to the general public then maybe they can learn something from my bad experience as well."
Evan "Mose" Hyde, Emaun's Father
"People can push around child pornography in Belize and it's not a criminal act and we have to look on those things because people supposed to have a right to their privacy and even if it's an adult woman, there should be a punishment."
Because the fact remains right now as this interview deh go on, people are vulnerable because, mek we be real, people have sex and if you have sick enough people they could really use images and stuff to try bring down people because we society, reality is, we judgemental, especially against women."
Indira Craig
"Legislation can look at it at a serious way and see what can be implemented to give us some protection because it is not just a teenager and a child anymore, it's everybody, it's women, we are all victims to this because there is no protection."
The sharing of pornography on cell phones and computers is just the latest wave of abuse being inflicted against women and children. In the United States, some teen-aged girls who have been the victim of such attacks have gone into severe depression and even committed suicide. In response, several states took extreme measures against the situation, such as filing criminal charges against even the senders and receivers of child pornography.
But in Belize, and throughout the Caribbean, legislation and enforcement have not been able to keep pace with technology.
Pearl Stuart, Executive Director, National Committee for Families and Children
"And I'm hoping that those out there that can assist in the technological aspect of indeed coming up with changes that we may need to put in place in our laws."
According to Pearl Stuart, Executive Director of the National Committee for Families and Children, policy makers are focused on passing laws that protect women and children. In fact by the end of 2010, Stuart says the Government of Belize will make amendments to dramatically increase the penalties for those involved in commercial sexual exploitation of children, carnal knowledge and trafficking in persons. But the new amendments do not include anything about internet files or cell phone images. Stuart says it's up to the public to demand the changes needed to address the situation.
Pearl Stuart
"Even though they are forwarding these emails, they might think it's just part of what it's supposed to be. Do we want to send a strong symbol and put somebody up as an example? Do we want to do that or you know, when you have a child you sit down and dialogue with them. Particularly in this year of the youth where we talk about dialogue and mutual understanding. Sit down and talk with them, let them know that they are not doing the right thing. But do we immediately say yes, you are going to go to jail. I don't think so. So I think we need to do some sensitizing."
Sensitizing the public, formulating a bill and passing laws with penalties will take time. But for Emaun, even time will not erase the memory of this unfortunate episode.
Emaun Hyde
"This will never completely disappear as much as I'd like it to and it's something that I'll be having to deal with for the rest of my life."
"Even though situations like this happen and people do get themselves into things like this...you actually do a video then...even if that's the case, there's no need and no reason for you to be malicious and that evil to spread it around. Why? What do you get out of it? Nothing. There's no reason. Be the person to stop it."
Reporting for 7News, I am Janelle Chanona.
If you have any suggestions or recommendations contact on how to criminalize or control the dissemination of exploitative pornography, you can contact the NCFC at ncfc@btl.net or call the agency at at 223-0059….
Email
Print