3,000-member revenge porn group had underage victims, US officials say. Creator arrested

Police have arrested the creator of a revenge porn group that contained victims from the Rio Grande Valley, Texas officials said.

Jose Maria Cosino, 23, of San Benito was arrested April 12 after turning himself in to authorities, according to an April 15 news release from the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office.

The Rio Grande Valley Child Exploitation Investigation Task Force, composed of local investigators and Homeland Security agents, discovered a private Telegram group distributing child pornography, officials said.

Cosino was identified as the creator and administrator of the group, which had more than 3,000 members, according to the district attorney’s office.

He faces 12 counts of possession of child pornography and three counts of unlawful distribution or promotion of intimate visual material, court records show.

Cosino is being held on a US$300,000 (RM1.43mil) bond. McClatchy News was unable to locate his attorney information.

Underage victims featured in the group confirmed they did not give anyone consent to share their content or make it public, officials said.

Investigators are working to identify more victims throughout the Rio Grande Valley, according to officials.

“This case highlights a danger of today’s society,” Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz said.

“Sharing intimate pictures online may end badly,” he warned. “The initial circumstance in which intimate photos are shared may change in the future, however once you share you can’t un-share.”

The National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) says “revenge porn is a type of nonconsensual porn, defined as the distribution of sexually graphic images or videos of an individual without their consent.”

“Typically, we think of these as images or videos which are consensually sent to an intimate partner who then shares the images outside of their original, consensually shared context,” according to the NAAG.

The organisation says 80% of nonconsensual porn can be classified as revenge porn. – The Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service