Georgia Harrison on the ‘overwhelming reaction’ following revenge porn trial

Georgia Harrison says she’s had an “overwhelming” amount of support following the conviction of ex-boyfriend Stephen Bear on revenge porn charges.

Reality star Bear, 33, was jailed for 21 months in March for sharing a private video – captured on CCTV – of him having sex with Harrison on his OnlyFans website without her consent.

“I’ve had an overwhelming reaction,” says former Love Island contestant Harrison, 28.

“I have a consistent amount of DMs [direct messages] from people supporting me, I have women coming up to me in the street, often crying, and telling me their stories and telling me how I’ve helped them.”

Other young men and women have contacted the Essex-born TV personality asking for advice.

“It’s been a mix of positive support but also cries for help, which I can’t ignore,” says Harrison, who has 1.2m followers on Instagram.

“My Instagram is flooded with people who need help, or have been affected by similar sorts of issues like consent and also image-based sexual abuse.

“I do my best to respond to people individually, depending on what they’re asking, or I’ll refer them over to a charity like Refuge or the Revenge Porn Helpline.”

Following the trial, she says activism is now an “extremely important” part of her life.

“It isn’t something I expected to happen, but I truly do believe when something bad happens to you in life, or you get put in a bad situation, the best thing you can do is try and use it for good.

“Unfortunately, I did find myself in quite an awful situation. I think the only thing I can do now is use it as a positive experience and do as much as I can to help everyone else.”

In April, she appeared at a demonstration outside Parliament calling for a code of practice to be added to the Online Safty Bill so women and girls are protected online.

“It’s been scary stepping into my new role as a campaigner, but I’m definitely embracing it,” Harrison says.

“It’s a whole new world for me. I’ve always been a positive person who wants to change the world and wants to be an inspiration to younger people, but I’ve always been a reality star.

“I never really envisioned that I’d be doing things in Parliament, walking into the House of Commons or the House of Lords and having conversations with such influential people – real influential people who can make a difference in the world.”

Now, the reality star has partnered with Superdrug on the You Before Yes campaign to educate young people on the importance of consent.

Research from the retailer found 36% of 18 to 21-year-olds had ‘gone along with sex’ even though they didn’t want to, while 25% had unprotected sex when they didn’t want to, and 23% have experienced a power imbalance in a sexual relationship.

“It was really upsetting to hear that there are so many young men and women who haven’t been educated on that or don’t feel they have the ability to stand up for themselves when they don’t want to do something,” says Harrison.

She recalls a non-consensual incident when she was around 18 or 19 and hanging out on a street with some female friends.

“Some guys came past and they said ‘Jump in the limo and have a drink’, and then me and a couple of the girls got in the limo.

“One of the guys was grabbing our boobs, being all over us, touching us really inappropriately without consent.

“We all jumped out of the limo, but we were really crying. I remember that being a really upsetting experience for me that I had been put in a position where I’d said no and someone was still trying to touch me.”

She believes widespread access to online pornography and the normalisation of “rough and quite dominating” sex is partly to blame for the confusion around consent.

“A lot of porn – it’s never just loving, happy, healthy relationships or just loving, normal sex.

“I think that probably can confuse individuals as to, ‘What should I be accepting? Is it normal to have someone sort of take control of me?'”

Pointing out that there’s a big difference between the porn magazines of the past and the “vulgar or violent” videos common online today, she says: “You can imagine for someone who’s a bit younger and hasn’t had sexual experiences themselves, what are they meant to think when that’s the only thing they’ve seen?”

Similar to health warnings on cigarette packets, Superdrug will be adding consent messaging on condom packaging and QR codes linking to the You Before Yes educational microsite.

“I think it is just about educating people on how important consent is and how they need to make sure they’re getting it,” says Harrison.

“They have the right to make choices and they have the right to say no, if and when they want to, and they don’t just have to do what someone else wants them to do.”