All You Need To Know And Where To Watch Zara McDermott: Revenge Porn

 

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If you’ve been on social media in the past two days, I’m sure you’ve seen many messages of praise and interest in Zara McDermott’s new documentary about her revenge porn trauma.

The Love Island star was only 14-years-old when she was a victim of revenge porn. An incident that still affects her today, Zara looks at how her perpetrators received no punishment for naked images of her which circulated around the school. Yet, the damage it caused to her mental health and the lives of her family and friends is still something they’re dealing with.

Tearfully opening up in the documentary, Zara admits how challenging school became at such a young age when she was excluded and left out following the incident.

“All I wanted was to be liked,” she says of sending the photos. “I did it in order to try and make myself more popular, but it had the complete adverse effect.”

Explaining that she was in a very dark place following the images being released, Zara encountered the nightmare yet again when her fame began to soar and she appeared on Love Island. As private images of her circulated while she was still on the show, Zara couldn’t believe that her hell was happening all over again, but with a larger audience.

“It was so embarrassing, I just wanted to die, I wanted to die,” explains Zara in the documentary. Noting that the blame seems to always be on the sender, rather than the one who shares the images, Zara admits that this victim blaming needs to stop and we need to not judge people for wanting to be intimate, we need to point the finger at those who break the trust and ruin people’s lives all for ‘banter’.

Now, using her voice for change and her platform of 1.5 million people to raise awareness, Zara’s powerful documentary on BBC Three is now opening up the conversation that nobody should ever feel alone when they fall victim to revenge porn. Sharing nudes and explicit images with those you feel you can trust has become a modern part of dating and for those to be shared without consent is revenge porn. That’s not on you.

Zara McDermott’s documentary is only currently available to UK fans on the BBC iPlayer and BBC Three, but we will be sure to update you when it becomes available to Irish audiences.

Now, in Ireland, people guilty of online harassment and revenge porn could face up to 10 years in prison as part of a bill passed with all-party support in December 2020.

The bill specifies that circulating photos, videos or other content, or threatening to do so could mean a conviction involving an unlimited fine and seven years in prison, with up to 10 years in prison for other acts which involves “persistent communication” directly with a person or about that person to wider audiences.

If you have experienced this type of abuse and harassment please contact the Women’s Aid National Freephone Helpline on 1800 341 900 and speak to someone at your local Garda Victims Service Office.

• celeb
• love island
• Made in Chelsea
• revenge porn
• Zara McDermott