Episode summary
BONUS SERIES: Levittown Episode 1 | Me... But Not Me | Bloomberg Daybreak: US Edition
Bloomberg Daybreak: US Edition
· · 29 min
Summary
The episode follows Kayla, who discovers that altered, sexually explicit images of her taken from social media have been posted to an open website where users trade violent fantasies and harass the people pictured. The host explains that the images were not on the dark web, but on a public site that encouraged “tributing,” and that Kayla’s father found the postings through a routine search of her name.
The story is also about how deeply the damage went. Kayla says seeing the fake images and the comments attached to them changed how she viewed her own body, triggered eating problems, and left her depressed. She and her family tried to deal with it quietly, but when they contacted police in 2020 they were told there was little they could do.
The host places Kayla’s case in a larger context: the rapid spread of deepfakes and AI-generated sexual imagery, the ease of manipulating ordinary social-media photos, and the lack of laws at the time to stop it. The episode sets up a broader investigation into how victims, hackers, and law enforcement ended up in an escalating fight over a new kind of crime.
Key takeaways
- Kayla says the images were scraped from her social media, altered to look nude, and posted on a porn website that encouraged users to rank sexual acts.
- The host argues that deepfake-style abuse has become easier and cheaper as generative AI has advanced.
- Kayla says the experience changed her relationship with her body and contributed to body dysmorphia, eating issues, and depression.
- Kayla’s father contacted local police, but the family was told there was little they could do because the site was anonymous and hard to trace.
- The episode frames the case as part of a broader arms race between law enforcement and technology that police are losing.
Notable quotes
“There was one picture of me in a bathing suit. Well, it was me in a bathing suit in one of my friends backyards and I didn't have a bathing suit on anymore”
“It was just boobs and body parts. Um, completely nude that looked so much like my own body”
“The website it was on was called come onprintedpick.com and it encouraged its members to do exactly what that title implies”
“I instantly cried. I was just like I think I remember kind of like stating more to myself than anybody else. Like why is this happening to me”
“It's like this is not the setting for a horror movie. And that's exactly what played out”
How the episode opens
This series explores sexualized imagery involving minors and violence. Please take care when listening. Can we start from the beginning?
How did this all start for you? So, I can like go back into it. I remember somehow all these pictures for my Instagram, my Visco were all on this website.
There was one picture of me in a bathing suit. Well, it was me in a bathing suit in one of my friends backyards and I didn't have a bathing suit on anymore. And it was just me naked.
Well, not me, but me with someone else's body parts on my body parts. It was just boobs and body parts. Um, completely nude that looked so much like my own body.
There were so many different pictures from my social media on essentially a porn website. I was just trying to figure out exactly like where is this coming from? Like how are they finding my stuff?
I didn't let people follow me that I didn't know. So it was always in the back of my head like oh it's someone that I know. But how do you find out who that someone is when you know so many people from school, soccer, all these things?
Did you ever have any suspicions as to who it was back then?
No, not at all. It was always like, why is this happening? Who is this? Kayla was 20 years old and living at home with her parents in a town that was once the picture of the American dream, a Long Island suburb called Levittown. We're driving around Lever Town. A lot of white picket fences, a lot of American flags. It has the feel of going back in time.
This is Levittown, one of the most remarkable housing developments ever conceived.
From the episode’s captions: roughly the first two minutes, lightly cleaned. Keep watching on YouTube →
Topics
- pandemic
- revenge porn
- online harassment
- police response
- victim discouragement
Watch the episode
Summary, takeaways and quote selection by Octagon. Quotes are short excerpts; the full conversation is in the episode.
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Bloomberg Daybreak: US Edition, this episode and its artwork belong to Bloomberg. Octagon is not affiliated with the show; this page is an independent summary.
