Reality TV star Georgia Harrison tells MPs Stephen Bear sex video 'blew up' - and calls for social media change

‘Love Island’ star Georgia Harrison has told MPs that that sex video her ex-boyfriend Stephen Bear made of her spread like a ‘house fire’.

The 29-year-old star was speaking to the the Women and Equalities Committee, and during her comments she also called on social media companies to do more to stop the sharing of such content.

eality TV personality Bear, aged 34, was released from prison in January after serving 10-and-a-half months for sharing a sex tape of his former girlfriend Harrison. The disgraced TV personality, who won ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ in 2016, was jailed on March 3, 2023 after filming himself having sex with Harrison in his garden in 2020 and uploading the footage to his OnlyFans account without her permission.

She told MPs how the video “went viral to a point I can’t explain” as it spread around multiple porn sites and was also circulated on WhatsApp. She said: “It absolutely horrified me that an individual had done this to me but what most horrified me was that these platforms were hosting these videos that were unconsented.

“For many that I tried to reach out to, I got an automated response saying we will get back to you within four to six days. When something like this is happening, it really is like a house fire and the quicker you can put it out, the quicker you can stop it. Unfortunately, in four to six days your house has burnt down, everyone knows about this video – your family, your workplace, your peers, it’s too late.”

Harrison made history by changing the law in revenge porn in response to her ordeal. She was among the many campaigners calling for changes in the law. Revenge porn, the distribution of sexually explicit images or videos of individuals without their consent, was made a criminal offence in 2015. But, before the campaign from Harrison and others prosecutors had to prove that there was intention to cause distress or humiliation.

That requirement has now been removed thanks to Harrison’s campaigning, making it easier to convict offenders. Harrison, age 29, who recently appeared on ‘Love Island: All Stars’ and has also appeared on ’The Only Way Is Essex’, has waived her right to anonymity. During his sentencing, Bear was also given a restraining order and told not to contact Harrison for five years. He must also keep police informed of his whereabouts for a decade.

Following his sentencing last year, Bear was also ordered to pay Harrison the sum of £200,000 – the highest amount awarded in an image abuse case. Months after the trial, he was forced to sell his Essex home for £525,000.

Harrison also told the committee that “one of the biggest challenges” is that as social media companies who are hosting pornographic images and videos are so big, they don’t have any way of contacting them to report when something unconsented is posted. She added: “It shouldn’t be robots that you get through to when it’s this important a situation, it shouldn’t be that hard to get through to someone.”

The TV personality also called on social media giants to impliment 24-hour helplines for victims to report unconsented videos and pictures. She continued to say that she doesn’t think a person’s account should automatically be deleted if they post sexual content. “I’m not saying delete it, I’m not saying take this person’s account down, I’m just saying can we pause it and then review it in a few weeks and I think that is the biggest issue we are dealing with at the moment.

“Then, they could go back and review it and if whoever is in it hasn’t consented, it will never go back up, but if after review both people have consented the footage is still there to get put back on the platform. But I think if something gets to the level where you say this is me in a sexually explicit act and I have not given permission, it should be paused that day, not in four to six days.”

Harrison is apparently set to make a docuseries about her revenge porn campaigning work after Bear's conviction. She told MPs that it was a "kick in the teeth" that the video of her and Bear was not automatically taken down after the court case.

Asked what the impact would be if such content was deemed illegal once there was a conviction, she said: "It would make every single bit of difference. I think there's almost 30,000 images and pictures that the RP (revenge porn) helpline have already said have gone through the court case - they've won so they are technically illegal - but they are still legal right now."

The TV personality said this could be done through the Online Safety Act and said it would change tens of thousands of women's lives. She went on: "For me, it would mean that I know I have a future knowing full well that no one is going to be able to find or see that video of me again, as they shouldn't. But until this gets made illegal, that's not going to happen."

She also told the committee that thousands of other victims of revenge porn have been in touch with her over the past three years, and said that she still gets "five to six messages a day” from victims.

* For further advice on how to get explicit online material removed, contact the Revenge Porn Helpline on 0345 6000 459.