Jacqueline

It was the first time that I had drunk alcohol. Someone had secretly filmed me at the party and the video was shared online. I was so humiliated.

Madison had the party at her house when her parents were away and now it's a blur – I really don’t remember much about that night. My friends and I had a few drinks together. I thought I was being careful, but I ended up being sick and then stumbling home to bed.

The next day a friend texted me to say she was ‘so sorry’ about the video and she hoped I was OK. My heart sunk as I opened the link she shared. Someone had filmed me vomiting and added the caption, ‘Jac can't hold her booze!’

I was really worried my family would find out. My parents are very conservative and are respected members of our local community. They would be so upset to learn I had drunk alcohol while underage, let alone see what had happened. Worse still, there were multiple copies of the video online. New versions were being shared with different captions.

People thought it was a joke. It was so humiliating.

I reported the videos to the platform, but they kept on being shared. I was terrified of going to school the next day. People made fun of me, but my friends were really supportive. One of them told me that I could make a cyberbullying report to eSafety. eSafety put me in touch with a counselling service to get support. They also contacted all the social media services where the video had been shared and made sure it was taken down.

It was a truly horrible experience, and I hope no one else has to go through it. I’m still haunted by the video today, but at least it has been taken down, and it’s not going to damage my reputation and future career prospects.

_{Note: Jacqueline’s story combines experiences and emotions of a number of individuals in this situation. Stock photo. Posed by model.}