They help survivors of image-based sexual abuse feel seen: 'It's not content, it's people's digital likeness'

Women

After experiencing image-based sexual abuse, Yiu Xin Yin felt isolated and frustrated with the reporting process. She later teamed up with three women to start The Moxie Collective – a Singapore community supporting survivors and pushing for greater awareness and understanding of IBSA.

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17 Jun 2026 06:56AM

After Yiu Xin Yin was filmed during an intimate act without her consent, she reported the incident as a victim of image-based sexual abuse (IBSA).

At the police station, the officer taking her statement made several calls to seek the opinion of investigating officers, Yiu recalled. Details of her case were shared in her presence. “It was upsetting and insensitive,” she said.

Yiu said the police officer told superiors several times that there was “no dissemination of content or threats” in her case. “I felt that reduced my case, that it wasn’t a big deal,” she said.

She was struck by the lack of empathy she encountered during the reporting process. She had already struggled with whether it was “serious enough to report”, so the reaction of the police meant a great deal to her.

“Perhaps part of it comes from a kind of systemic exhaustion that leads people to normalise victims’ experiences or become desensitised to them,” said the 25-year-old. “But even small moments of empathy can make a significant difference to how the process is for the survivor.”

Yiu felt “incredibly isolated” after the 2021 incident. Frustrated that she had to chase the police for updates, she searched for solace in others but found it hard to find women with the same shared experience.

In November 2022, she posted about her experience on Instagram and many IBSA victim-survivors reached out to her after that.

Her post attracted the attention of a university researcher studying tech-facilitated forms of sexual violence, as well as an acquaintance in the mental health space. The latter asked if Yiu wanted to start a community for victims like herself.

Yiu agreed and teamed up with the researcher and the acquaintance. The researcher also brought in an ally, Raag Sudha Sanjay, 30, and The Moxie Collective was launched in December 2023.

It is an informal community for women in Singapore who have experienced IBSA. All four co-founders – a mix of survivors and allies – have full-time jobs and run the collective in their own time. The two co-founders not interviewed in this story requested to remain anonymous.

“We all saw the need to provide a space of solace for victim-survivors because of how rampant victim-blaming is in society, as well as the burdens that a victim-survivor has to carry after the harm has landed,” Yiu told CNA Women.

DIGITAL HARMS CAN RESURFACE LATER

The Association of Women for Action and Research’s (AWARE) Sexual Assault Care Centre defines IBSA as the non-consensual creation, obtainment and/or distribution of sexual images or videos of another person. Threats to do so are also considered IBSA.

Examples include upskirt videos, deepfake porn, revenge porn and video voyeurism, such as the use of spy cameras.

Yiu said it can be hard to get people to acknowledge that IBSA is a real thing.

While some understand the length and severity of the harm, there are others who separate the digital world from the physical world, so they belittle the harm that victims face as “there are people having it worse”.

Downplaying the severity of one type of harm over another is damaging for all survivors, Yiu said.

“It shifts the focus away from the survivor’s lived experience and the support they need,” she added. “Instead, it may be more constructive to focus on addressing these harms without undermining the experiences of other survivors.”

Yiu added that digital harms also work differently as they may return in the future. “Once there’s a screenshot or a video of someone in the nude, anyone can replicate that at any given time,” she said.

The burden is also often on the victim to take action. In Yiu’s case, she thought the police would contact the perpetrator’s university but she had to do it herself. It distressed her that she had to recall the incident to yet another party.

FINDING COMFORT IN OTHER VICTIM-SURVIVORS

The Moxie Collective operates as a safe space for victim-survivors, even if they don’t want to report the harm.

Co-founder Raag noted the process of reporting to institutions – whether it is the workplace, university or the police – is fragmented and often not trauma-informed. A victim-survivor may have to recount the details of their violation multiple times to different parties, each time reliving the experience.

“When the focus is on extracting facts and details rather than supporting the person, the reporting process itself can become re-triggering,” she said. “So the very system that’s supposed to help can end up compounding the harm.”

While some women seek therapy to cope with their trauma, it can still be an isolating experience. What’s missing is community, said Raag, as a victim-survivor might still feel isolated after therapy because she doesn’t have peers who truly understand what she’s been through.

Raag explained: “The Moxie Collective fills that gap. We’re a community space where fellow victim-survivors hold space for each other and remind one another that they’re not alone – a safe space to share with other women who won’t judge them.”

There are also resources on their website to better understand IBSA, such as an introduction to what it is, a spy cam guide and how to report a perpetrator to their university.

The collective organises monthly meet-ups for members; there are currently around 12, aged between their early 20s and late 30s.

Activities include wellness sessions, book clubs and reflection journalling circles. They also have sessions by trauma-informed therapists or movie nights that screen documentaries about digital violence or gender-based violence, after which members discuss their thoughts.

“A common theme that comes up is how trauma manifests in their daily lives,” Raag said. “A member mentioned how she often can’t sleep, wondering where these images might be and who has their hands on them.

“There’s also this notion of anticipatory caution, feeling very worried, almost phobic of online spaces,” she added. “Others have shared about the anger and the non-linear nature of it, how some days they feel like they’ve healed then other days, they’re back in that storm.”

This is when gathering with other victim-survivors helps – hearing others' experiences and finding comfort in other women, Raag said.

“I HOPE IT’S TAKEN MORE SERIOUSLY ON A HUMAN RIGHTS LEVEL”

The group took part in the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women Conference 2025, organised by AWARE annually, in November 2025.

They ran a booth to educate the public about IBSA and The Moxie Collective, and Raag also presented a seminar session on IBSA.

“To be able to advocate for a non-clinical, peer-led model as a legitimate form of care, among other attendees such as case workers, clinical psychologists and lawyers, and to have people tell us that they saw meaning in our work, that was a very proud moment for me,” said Raag.

Yiu added: “We had doubts about whether we were on the right track, whether we were necessary in this space. To be at that conference and have people affirm our experiences really made me feel like we were doing something meaningful.

“Personally, as a self-funded community, I felt seen and deeply touched by the outpouring of support and the potential for future collaborations.”

It’s also not just women who need to understand IBSA. Raag noted having conversations with men about what they can do when they come across images or news relating to IBSA being circulated.

What Raag would like to see is better coordination between institutions, and that the police and legal proceedings were “more trauma-informed”.

She gave an example of a violation in a university setting – a student might first have to report it to her residential assistant, who escalates it to the office of housing. Then she also needs to report to the university itself, and if needed, lodge a police report on top of that.

“The onus is entirely on the victim-survivor to drive each of these processes separately,” Raag added. “If these channels spoke to each other, the process could be more seamless – rather than the burden falling on the person who’s already going through the worst of it.”

Raag pointed out that the terminology should be explored too.

“Classifying it (IBSA) as possession or distribution of explicit content is inherently a very dehumanising way to see it,” she added. “It’s not content, it’s people’s digital likeness. It’s a violation of dignity, so I hope it’s taken more seriously on a human rights level.”

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Source: CNA/pc