Welcome to

Sharing private images to hurt someone, a tactic known as revenge porn, gets a lot of eyebrow raises when mentioned, but as Matt Galka tells us, one girl is telling lawmakers the crime is real and has devastating consequences.

Florida State senior Carly Hellstrom says the past year can be summed up in one word.

“Hell,” she said.

Hellstrom was a victim of revenge porn. She sent a racy picture of herself to an ex-boyfriend four years ago that he posted online last year.

“I kind of went through my waves of emotion. I was sad and depressed and I kind of had to get a little angry and figured that I wasn’t going to let this ruin my life and I had to turn this around,” said Hellstrom.

She says it’s the first thing that came up when you Googled her name and had hundreds of thousands of views. It’s gone now, but she still wants to see a law on the books protecting people in her situation.

“When I just got out of high school I didn’t know the consequences, and I 100% will say that it’s a mistake and my fault, but I don’t think I deserved it and I don’t think anybody does, and I don’t think that if you do something like that you should be punished for it and that’s where the law needs to come in and protect us,” she said.

Hellstrom’s story is grabbing the attention of lawmakers and two bills are now moving through the legislature.

Rep. Tom Goodson (R-Titusville) sponsors the House version of a bill that would make revenge porn a crime

“I believe very much in the first amendment and freedom of expression, I do not believe in harassing someone, or hurting someone all because you fell out of love,” he said.

While Hellstrom says the act needs to be a felony, the two bills moving in the Capitol would make first offenses a misdemeanor. Subsequent revenge porn charges could turn into felonies. Both the House and Senate bills each have one more committee to clear before they can be considered for a floor vote.