Dating Site Allegedly Using Pics Of Rehtaeh Parsons To Attract Frisky Online Daters

Rehtaeh Parsons, the 17-year-old high school student who killed herself following an alleged gang rape, is with us no longer. Despite her family getting hassled with rape-apologist posters in their Canadian town, Rehtaeh’s memory lives on in rape culture awareness and advocacy on the part of many. And, more distastefully, in a particular dating web site that is allegedly using her photos in online dating ads.

Andrew Ennals, who, according to his Twitter bio, is a Toronto based ad writer, tweeted the following discovery:

Find love in Canada? Find a deceased underage rape victim in Canada?

Those of you who have spent time on Rehtaeh Parson’s memorial Facebook page will recall such an image from numerous news reports:

Rob Rusell, who originally tweeted the above ad, tweets seeing another one as well with a different picture of Rehtaeh:

This particular photo of Rehtaeh is also available on her family’s memorial Facebook page:

According to Russell, Facebook is not to blame here:

A click of that provided “ionechat.com” link simply exposes an index of photos with the title “I am here to date with a girl in Canada.”

Naturally, people are disgusted:

I’ve contacted Facebook about the placement of the ads:

I’ll keep you posted if they get back to me.