The horrors of the online “Rape Academy”

It’s just what every little girl dreams of. Poofy white dress. Flowers. Friends. And waiting for you at the end of the aisle, your dream man. Your Prince Charming.

But some of those men have been logging on to a platform called “Motherless” to chat and hang out. A recent investigation, originally by German investigative journalists Isabell Beer and Isabel Ströh, found that men on that website are also discussing how to drug, rape and let others watch and participate in violating their unconscious partners.

CNN picked up the story and published an in-depth exposé of what it calls a “Rape Academy”. The details are horrifying and completely rocked my world – but why isn’t it all over the newspapers, radio and TV news channels? The Guardian has recently reported that media coverage of violence against women and girls has fallen. Analysis of over 1 billion online stories found that only 1.3% were about violence against women and girls. And yet 20% of recorded crime in Britain and Wales is against women and girls.

CNN showed that, during February, the Rape Academy received 62 million page views. This is a site showing videos of unconscious and unconsenting women being raped and violated in thier own homes.

Do not log on to Motherless. As bad as you fear it may be, it is so much more damaging and shocking. I have endured thousands of obscene images and threats, along with a fake Onlyfans account that was made in my name and sent to my dad – but that feels like child’s play compared to the conversations and content being shared on this platform. The labeling and tags of the videos alone made me remove my own profiles from dating sites and made me cancel plans to meet potential dates this weekend.

This is not questionable pornography. This is men that hate their wives. This is men that are a danger to each of us and to our physical and mental safety and the safety of our daughters and sons. This is rape culture magnified and gamified and keyworded.

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I reported on the sentencing of Gisèle Pelicot’s rapists and was overwhelmed that in this small, sleepy French town, her former husband was able to find and recruit so many men across all walks of life willing to rape his unconscious wife, a woman clearly unable to consent or speak. That case brought to life every fear about not knowing the man you have spent 50 years with.

Motherless is the manifestation of the Pelicot case in millions of households.

Courtney Furey, a cyber security analyst, researched the platform’s ownership and legality. “Despite the content, Motherless is one of the most trafficked on the internet.”

“UK’s communications regulator Ofcom only investigated the parent company for failing to complete a proper ‘illegal content risk assessment’.”

This is a site hosting over 20,000 videos of drugged women – so called “sleep” rape content. And Ofcom is worrying about an age gate, but not the actual content.

Where does the Online Safety Bill and the government sit on Motherless? Where does Big Tech come into play? And why isn’t AI being used to expose the users and warn the women who are being victimised, without their knowledge? What is being done to protect us in our own beds?

Poland is the first country to make an arrest based on CNN’s reporting. My post sharing CNN’s reel about that arrest had over 10k engagements overnight. The majority of the comments are along the lines of “one down and 61 million to go”. But the 61 million page views were just in February. There were 87 million in March.

And the exposure from CNN may double that number next month – clearly some of the log-ins will be for research purposes, but just stopping this site does not change the very real fact that millions of men are seeking out this so-called community.

Women are saying that if we make a website and name all of our rapists and abusers it will go viral and be an avalanche of information to protect future victims. But in a rape culture, we are not believed. See the Epstein Files. And when women have tried to name their perpetrators, they have been doxxed, lost their jobs and had their pictures plastered across the internet.

The same thing does not happen for the men – and it will not happen for the men using Motherless. The same does not happen for rapists. Rape culture doesn’t allow it or believe women. I wish for all of our sakes it did.