(WSVN) - Social media is a great way to keep in touch with friends and family, but two Broward women discovered its dark side. Kevin Ozebek has tonight’s 7 Investigates.
Grace Gardiner loves looking at her pictures on Facebook, or she did, until some showed up on a sexually suggestive Facebook page.
Grace Gardiner: “It just made me sick.”
These pictures of Grace were being featured on a page called “Women In Public.” It had a shocking URL: facebook.com/rapesluts.
Grace says her pictures were taken from a friend’s page without permission.
Grace Gardiner: “I go to the ‘rape slut’ site, and lo and behold, I scroll through the pictures of all of these women.”
The page had pictures of other women, many in provocative photos. Grace thinks some of them could be under the age of 18.
Grace Gardiner: “I felt disgusted. I felt angry.”
She was angry to see this photo, and these two posing nude on a bed. There were even sexually suggestive videos.
Men didn’t hesitate to comment.
Grace Gardiner: “The nasty, gross comments was just mortifying to me.”
Velvet Fox: “I’m ‘sexy,’ or I’m ‘hot.'”
Grace’s sister Velvet, was also repulsed.
Velvet Fox: “I wanted to delete everything. I didn’t want to be any part of it.”
When Grace and Velvet contacted Facebook to report the “Women In Public” page, they were shocked at the response.
Velvet Fox: “They declined. They declined every single request to remove this page from social media.”
Grace Gardiner: “The canned response that I got was, ‘This does not go against community standards.'”
Facebook’s note also suggested that they “block ‘Women In Public.’ Unfriend or unfollow them.”
Grace Gardiner: “Oh, I was even more angry. I felt like I had been violated twice.”
7 Investigates reached out to Facebook to ask why the page was still active.
Four days later, Facebook sent us this email saying they “removed the page for violating our community standards.”
Dr. Nancy Richmond, social media expert, Florida International University: “Facebook has many community standards, and looking at that particular situation, it looked like it was violating at least three or four of them.”
Dr. Nancy Richmond is a social media expert at Florida International University. She says, to keep your photos from being used without your permission, check your privacy settings.
Dr. Nancy Richmond: “If you are posting photos and videos, and you really only want your friends and your family to see it, make sure that you have your Facebook settings marked to private for friends and maybe friends of friends.”
Grace learned another lesson as well.
Grace Gardiner: “And, if other people are posting pictures of you and tagging you in them, you need to ask them to also make those pictures private and not open for the world to see, because they can be taken off of anyone’s wall.”
Velvet Fox: “Beware, because these people are out there.”
And since some still prowl the dark corners of social media, these sisters say their Facebook settings will now be as secure as possible.
Facebook told 7 Investigates it will look into why it took so long to take down the page.
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