When Amanda Joudrey LeBlanc hired someone to come into her home and look after her dogs, she never expected to see her bathroom floor and swimming pool as the background of explicit videos posted to an adults-only website.
“I am still shocked by it to be honest with you,” said Joudrey LeBlanc, who lives in Blanford, N.S. “It just feels, for lack of a better term, violating.”
Joudrey LeBlanc booked the dog-sitter on several occasions over the summer when she and her husband were out for the day. She said the dogs were happy, and the person was reliable.
A few weeks ago, Joudrey LeBlanc came across a video of the dog-sitter on social media advertising an account on OnlyFans, a subscription website mainly used for pornographic content.
She realized immediately it was recorded in her house, because her bathroom is covered in a distinctly patterned tile. Joudrey LeBlanc then paid $7.99 for a month’s subscription to the dog-sitter’s page, where she discovered the explicit content.
She said she was astounded to find videos of the dog-sitter masturbating in her bathroom, and posing naked in her outdoor pool.
“Everyone can do whatever they want. I don’t care. People have to make money,” said Joudrey LeBlanc. “I just don’t want it done in my home.”
The animals were not in any of the images.
An OnlyFans employee told CBC News in an email that they would be willing to look into the situation if Joudrey LeBlanc contacted them. They did not say whether the dog-sitter breached any of the company’s policies.
The dog-sitter did not respond to a request for an interview.
Experts weigh in
The situation was also shocking to legal expert Wayne MacKay, who said it raises serious concerns about privacy.
MacKay said although this is likely not a criminal matter, there may be some civil liability in an instance like this under the tort of “intrusion into seclusion.”
“Your home is your private space, your ultimate private space — your castle,” said MacKay, professor emeritus at Dalhousie University’s Schulich School of Law.
“If it was done in a public setting, then it’s not a privacy issue. But this is clearly a private place and a particularly important private place for people who own the home.”
A spokesperson for the Nova Scotia RCMP told CBC in an email that she cannot say for certain whether or not a crime was committed, since the incident was not reported to police.
Joudrey LeBlanc does not intend to take any sort of legal action, as the dog-sitter agreed to remove the videos filmed at her house from the website. However, Joudrey LeBlanc said the dog-sitter was unapologetic at first, and did not seem to understand why the situation was upsetting.
She had also recommended the dog-sitter to a handful of other local families whose homes also appeared on the OnlyFans page.
CBC News spoke to one man who lives in the South Shore area who learned the dog-sitter had been filming some of the explicit content in his bed.
Lisa Dawn Hamilton, a psychology professor and human sexuality researcher at Mount Allison University, said even though another person was not physically involved in the making of these videos, consent is still paramount.
“Creating content for OnlyFans is an income stream that a lot of people are using, and there’s nothing wrong with creating adult content. It’s in this case, the violation of privacy,” said Hamilton.
Hamilton added that if a film or pornography company wanted to record a video at a particular location, all parties would need to be on board, and there would likely be a contractual agreement in place.
Although this is a novel situation in his experience, MacKay said it’s likely a sign of the times as more explicit content moves online, but more importantly, as privacy breaches become more common.
‘Less privacy all the time’
“That’s another reason why perhaps provinces like Nova Scotia should look at some legislation, because we live in an age where there’s less and less privacy all the time, and we need to start thinking about ways to compensate when that privacy is violated,” he said.
“The cautionary tale here is that when you let anyone come into the sanctity of your home, you check very carefully who they are and what they’re doing.”
For Joudrey LeBlanc, it was a lesson learned.
“I’m just so disappointed that I trusted this person,” she said.
Going forward, she said she will be very cautious as to who is allowed to watch her dogs and come into her home, and wants others to be equally vigilant.
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