Georgia Harrison continuing to ‘struggle’ with online spread of revenge porn

Georgia Harrison has said she continues to “really struggle” with how a sexually explicit video of her remains readily available online.

The 30-year-old former Love Island and The Only Way Is Essex star has been outspoken about her former partner, Celebrity Big Brother winner Stephen Bear, being convicted of sharing a private film of them having sex.

She waived her right to anonymity, and 35-year-old Bear was jailed after being found guilty in 2023 of voyeurism and of two counts of disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress.

Harrison is fronting a two-part series with ITV, called Georgia Harrison: Porn, Power, Profit, where she looks into the issue of deepfakes and image-based sexual abuse.

Asked about the biggest challenge in making the documentary, she said: “I would say obviously the hardest part for me was having to see how widespread my video still is.

“I have a lot of people messaging me all the time, sending me clips of it. It’s always something in the back of my mind, but having to really face head on exactly where it is and how many places it’s in was a real struggle for me.

“To overcome that, I always remind myself that sometimes when you have a problem, the only way you can face it is head on.

“The only way for it to be impossible for not only my video but any victim of image-based sexual abuse’s video not to be online in the future is for there to be more awareness and for the Government and higher-up companies within the internet to get together and face it head on.

“For me, I know it wasn’t the easiest thing to do, it was the best thing I can do for my future and other women’s future.”

Harrison also said she is regularly contacted by mothers, whose children have been affected, about fake images and videos created with artificial intelligence (AI), which inspired her to explore that issue as well.

“It is the same feeling of humiliation, a violation of literally being de-clothed without your consent,” she said.

“It’s unconsented image-based abuse. Just because it’s fake, doesn’t mean it doesn’t evoke the same emotion within the victim it affects.”

Harrison hopes “raising awareness” of these issues can “hopefully” mean “change within the internet, so in the future not just me but any person who has been a victim of revenge porn won’t have to wake up every day wondering if it’s still out there”.

“If you can stop the people higher up from investing into the advertisement at the bottom, then the people at the bottom won’t keep putting up unconsented footage because they won’t be making any money off it,” she added.

“It’s just exposing the ecosystem. And with deepfakes, it’s exposing the issue because so many people aren’t aware of it and, I’m telling you, I had heard of it and I had friends who were affected by it, but until really looking into it and immersing myself into the world of it, I had no idea how damaging it is to society, how much it’s catching us all up, how much it’s ruining young people’s lives.

“It’s affecting parents and teachers who are dealing with this issue in schools, it’s a really horrible thing to do.”

Harrison met victims, a representative from a porn site, creators and journalists for the documentary to discuss how this ends up on the “internet we all use every day”.

“I have so much faith that eventually we will live in a world where unconsented imagery is far harder to share, especially on the normal web,” she said.

Harrison has also spoken to MPs on the Women and Equalities Committee and at the Labour Party Conference about her experience, and fronted the ITV documentary Revenge Porn: Georgia Vs Bear.

She has taken part in Love Island: All Stars, and won Channel 4 reality show Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins with boxer Lani Daniels.