Nairobi/Mutare — Kenyan sex worker Elizabeth Otieno shudders each time her cellphone buzzes with a new notification.
Across Africa, sex worker groups say there has been a surge in complaints from members who have become victims of non-consensual pornography, where sexually graphic material is posted online by their clients without their agreement. “But in the virtual world, most have no idea. It is a relatively new space for them. They don’t understand the risks and how to be safe and there is no information available to sex workers about digital security and data protection.”
Sharing images, videos or private information without consent — known as doxxing — was the most concerning issue, according to the February survey of more than 8,000 respondents.Image-based sexual abuse, which includes so-called revenge porn, has skyrocketed globally, with a survey by cybersecurity firm Kaspersky showing a 20% rise in people sharing nudes and explicit material since the beginning of the pandemic.
“For sex workers, it is even worse. Due to this lack of information, they will readily share their images and videos with clients — which are then shared across platforms like Facebook and TikTok, without their consent,” she said. “The police is not an option. They won’t help women like us. Instead, they just blame us and say it is our fault for doing this work.”Sex workers said they have resorted to hiding their faces during video calls or when sending images to new customers. “Most of the nude videos and pictures do not show my face,” said Mandy Kusasa, as she scrolled through one of her two smartphones at her home in Zimbabwe’s eastern city of Mutare.
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