BONUS SERIES: Levittown Episode 2 | ‘I’m Also on the Website’

Olivia Carville (0:01)

A quick note, this is Episode 2 of a six-part series. If you haven't heard the prior episodes, we recommend going back and starting there.

It should also be noted that this series explores sexualized imagery involving minors and violence. Please take care when listening.

Kayla (0:30)

I got a call when I was working at my old job at a clothing store, and I see one of the classmates popped up on my phone. She goes, I saw you on the website.

I just want to let you know I'm also on this website.

Olivia Carville (0:47)

It was New Year's Eve 2020 Nearly a year after Kayla's father had knocked on her bedroom door to show her the images he had found of her online.

Kayla (0:59)

And I remember just like walking away from the register, and I was just like, okay, like how many other people are on there?

Olivia Carville (1:08)

Kayla wasn't the only one whose phone was lighting up.

Cecilia (1:13)

I got a text. I was parked in the mall parking lot outside of the entrance to the movie theater with my boyfriend at the time, who was about to start his evening night shift.

Olivia Carville (1:29)

Cecilia was tucked in the driver's seat while rain pelted the windshield. She had planned to drop her boyfriend off at his job at the mall near Levittown, the New York suburb where they lived, before heading home.

Cecilia (1:43)

She said, hey, can I talk to you for a second?

And I said, yeah, my boyfriend's going into work in 15 minutes. You could call me then. And she texted back, he's going to want to hear this.

Olivia Carville (1:58)

The text was from a former classmate, someone she hadn't talked to in months. When the phone rang, Cecilia put it on speaker.

Cecilia (2:08)

She said that her friend came across this website called Come On Printed Pics, in which someone was posting photos of many of the girls that we had gone to school with. And she said that there are pictures of you on there, and I just wanted you to know.

And she also sent me the link to the website.

I opened the link immediately with my boyfriend over my shoulder, looking at it with me. The first things I saw when I opened that link, I remember were photos of girls that I graduated with. A lot of them were just pictures from their Instagrams. A lot of them had lengthy captions saying their name, and their age and describing them in gross ways. I remember coming across mine.

Olivia Carville (3:24)

The photo was a selfie. Cecilia had taken it in the changing room of a clothing store a few months earlier. It was exactly the same photo she'd posted to social media. Except in this one.

She was completely naked.

Cecilia (3:44)

He described me as a ripe Latina plaything.

Olivia Carville (3:49)

And there were others, including one of Cecilia when she was a lot younger.

Cecilia (3:56)

I remember seeing a photo of myself as a child. I was in elementary school. I had to be five or six.

Olivia Carville (4:07)

In the photo, she has chubby cheeks and ringlets that she's since grown out of. Next to that innocent image was an erect penis.

Cecilia (4:18)

Just resting there, like... Like it wasn't inches away from a digital image of a child's face.

Olivia Carville (4:29)

She started crying. Describing it as that kind of cry where you sound like you're dying.

Cecilia (4:37)

It was such a terrible feeling. I remember looking over at my boyfriend at the time, and he looked back at me.

And we didn't share any words, but his, the look in his eyes.

Olivia Carville (5:03)

Several young woman, she had a similar experience.

Leah (5:07)

I felt gross. I felt like I needed to take a shower. I felt like I wanted to cry.

I wanted to throw up. I wanted to scream.

Kat (5:15)

I didn't really want to look, but I had to look.

Leah (5:17)

It was the most horrifying thing, but you just can't look away like a car accident. But I'm the car accident.

I was just like paralysed on my couch for hours because it felt so surreal.

Kat (5:30)

And then that's when I went to my mom, and I was like there's like a whole thing going on.

Olivia Carville (5:39)

The news came while they were working a shift at their retail job or sitting at home watching New Year's Eve celebrations. Others were away at college parties and ran home in tears. In all, more than 40 young women found themselves living some version of this story. And they weren't strangers. Most knew each other from MacArthur High School. They were on the same cheerleading squad or they lived a few doors down from one another.