About david

My name’s David Canham, and on the 24th June 2016 someone recorded, and webcam streamed, a 1 to 1 sexual act without my knowledge or consent. In the space of minutes and seconds, every aspect of my life dramatically changed.

I don't consider myself to be an expert on the subject, and neither would I want to be, I'm just some bloke who has gone through it and experienced it. It took me MANY years to recover from that experience, which had left behind a lot of anger and frustration, these are not character attributes that I wanted to be in my life so I decided to use them to power positive change.

I’ve both written and spoken about that experience elsewhere, to raise awareness of this largely normalised and growing problem within the LGBTQ+ online community (and for that matter, all communities). Digital dating applications and websites are often used as the foundation for organised and premeditated image abuse attacks on thousands (if not millions) of our community members, worldwide, each year.
 
Whilst some countries do have laws against non-consensual image sharing crimes, often labelled by the media as Revenge Porn, the most current UK legislation falls a long way short of what is truly required. Those that 'police' those laws (in my experience) seem painfully unable to understand them, which seems to leave those laws at the mercy of the personal interpretation of those Detective Constables that 'investigate' reported cases. The Metropolitan Police, essentially, fudged their way through my own case for roughly three years. With Hampshire Constabulary applying a sense of judgemental arrogance to something that I had to report very recently. Not a particularly welcome tone for someone that's reporting something hurtful and painful.

Consequently many perpetrators are not successfully prosecuted and are free to repeat those acts over, and over again, without accepting responsibility or consequence for their actions. They are digital rapists who sexually and mentally abuse their victims, often subjecting them to a lifetime of mental scars that are difficult, and challenging, to overcome.
 
The UK's non-consensual image sharing laws are currently under review by the Law Commission, and their report was made public in February 2021. I was grateful for the opportunity to address the Law Commission, and I’m hopeful that some of my thoughts on the subject will be taken into consideration for the application to new and improved laws.
 
During 2020 calls to the Revenge Porn Helpline (see Support Resources) doubled dramatically, as a consequence of the first round of Covid-19 lockdown's. We took to applications such as Zoom, WhatsApp and other social media to connect with others….sometimes in a  sexual way. Images were shared, and sometimes on the opposite end, there would be a person ready to betray the trust of the other person’s life.
 
2021 was one hell of a bumpy ride for me personally, in the final stretch of various UK Covid lockdown's, I gave up on the subject of Non Consensual Image Abuse...and at the same time I gave up on myself (after separating from my partner) and sadly threw away 2 years of sobriety from recreational drug usage. It was, without a doubt, one of the worst life decisions that I have ever made. It's early days, but I'm working hard to restore that drug sobriety - step by step.
 
Of the things that I'm most proud about, it was the announcement by the team at Survivors UK (see Support Resources), that they were planning to launch a support group for LGBTQ+ victims of Image Based Sexual Abuse (IBSA) I cannot express in words, exactly how excited I was to be able to announce that launch. It came after 18 months of hard work to get my story out there and use it power positive change. I will always be forever grateful that Survivors UK were able to take such a bold step and provision a resource that most certainly wasn't available for me, back in 2016.

My second proudest moment was to be able to contribute to the University of Birmingham's study into the effects of Image Abuse within the LGBTQ+ community. It was the first of its kind, and as time moves forward, I hope that it will enable other LGBTQ+ Image Abuse victims to become the true (and empowered) survivors that they have every right to be. Upon my departure, from my advocacy work, the leader of that study told me that, whilst I might think that my contribution "really wasn't very much (my words)" because I had raised 'the profile of the subject' it had inspired him to ask questions about Image Abuse, and that had I not become involved the study would never have had the same high level of interest and engagement from the LGBTQ+ community. I genuinely hope that was the case. 
 
I walked away from my advocacy work for many reasons, firstly I quite simply wanted to move forward and get on with my life (although sadly I seem to have to dredge up the past as a protection mechanism - which I would rather not have to do). Secondly I felt that I'd quite simply 'done my bit', after submitting myself to various research papers and projects. Thirdly, as someone that I recently met put it, successful advocacy work requires numbers, and he's absolutely right. I found it quite a lonely experience as seemingly the only gay bloke (in the village lol) trying to 'make a change' and in many ways I felt attacked and harshly treated by the same community that I was trying to protect and help! I guess that you could say, that I felt that it just wasn't worth protecting or helping anymore. I've been reminded of these harsh attacks very recently, and as a consequence I feel that I made the right decision. In my eyes it's quite simply no longer worth my time or effort.

There are many LGBTQ+ individuals, who work very hard to provide us with services and support assistance that, from time to time, we all need. I wasn't aware of this (as much as I probably should have been) until my image abuse attack. So to those who consider themselves to be 'entitled' gays, why not take a step back and look at what's available now and then go back over the LGBTQ+ decades to see how much more we have today. ALL of those things have been provided through LGBTQ+ campaigning and the immense efforts of those involved. My own advocacy work pales into insignificance, when compared to those advocates that went before me.

Also, as that same guy put it, it's not my personal responsibly to put it right. And he's absolutely 100% on point here. It's EVERYONE'S responsibility and unless more LGBTQ+ people start to stand up and speak out about these crimes then NOTHING will change. Absolutely NOTHING! You have EVERY right to get angry about those that attack us through the misuse of technology (image or otherwise). So stand up and speak out, things change when there are greater numbers and the voice is louder. LGBTQ+ history demonstrates this over and over again.

Image and tech abuse is still a subject that I'm very passionate about, so I consider myself to be a 'non active advocate'. Perhaps one day I might see something positive within the LGBTQ+ community that might make me feel differently, but based on the last 18 months (from a personal POV) I won't be holding my breath. I feel reasonably sure that despite offering my support on the subject, for all sexualities (not just LGBTQ+) more people trolled me to death (when I lost my drug sobriety) than asked the question "what on earth has happened, and is he OK"

In closing I wanted to express my thanks to Folami Prehaye, founder of Victims of Image Crime (see Support Resources), without whom I would never have been able to find my own voice.