Meet Charlotte Laws, The Woman Who Helped Take Hunter Moore Down

The arrest and subsequent conviction of Hunter Moore — the man dubbed “the most hated man on the internet” — could have taken a lot longer had it not been for Charlotte Laws, a mother who took justice into her own hands.

Moore, who founded the now-defunct revenge porn website IsAnyoneUp.com, is the subject of Netflix’s latest true crime docuseries, The Most Hated Man on the Internet. The infamous site, which Moore launched in 2010, gained notoriety for publishing people’s explicit images alongside their personal information and social media handles. Many images on the site were either stolen from victims’ hacked email accounts — or submitted by the victims’ exes, who had been sent the pictures in confidence. In this way, IsAnyoneUp.com helped facilitate the rise of “revenge porn,” or the act of sharing someone else’s explicit videos or photos without their consent.

The website went dark in April 2012, and Moore was indicted less than two years later on multiple charges. Much of this proof was only uncovered after Charlotte Laws — the mother of one of Moore’s revenge porn victims — uncovered evidence of unlawful conduct for the FBI.

But who is the woman that helped take down the self-proclaimed “professional life ruiner”? Below, everything to know about Charlotte Laws and what she’s up to now.

Who Is Charlotte Laws?

Per the Daily Mail, Laws was working at an insurance company when photos of her daughter, Kayla, appeared on IsAnyoneUp.com. This would inspire her to begin a crusade against the site and its founder — a campaign that would earn her the title “The Erin Brockovich of Revenge Porn.” “I did what any [mom] would do. I defended my child. Young people, mostly girls, are killing themselves over revenge porn,” she told the Daily Mail earlier this month.

In addition to her anti-revenge porn advocacy, the Atlanta-born Laws has worked in a variety of fields. Once a trained actor (under the stage name “Missy Laws”), she shifted her focus to the social sciences in the mid-’90s. According to her website, she has earned multiple advanced degrees, including a doctorate in social ethics from USC. She is also the author of multiple books, including the 2015 memoir Rebel in High Heels, which recounts her successful fight against Moore.

Laws has appeared as a commentator and guest on a variety of talk shows and broadcast news programs, including BBC News, NBC News, Larry King Live, and ABC News Nightline, among many others. Her written work appears in Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, and more. She is also a longtime animal rights activist, and has founded two organizations dedicated to the protection of animals: Directors of Animal Welfare (DAW) and the League for Earth and Animal Protection (LEAP).

Where Is Charlotte Laws Today?

The story of IsAnyoneUp.com contributed to a growing movement to criminalize revenge porn; thanks to Laws and other advocates, most states now have laws in place criminalizing the practice. But Laws isn’t done fighting. “I’m still contacted by women every day and I expect that number to rise when the Netflix show is broadcast,” she told the Daily Mail. “I’m just a mum who defended her daughter, but I will make it my mission to defend anyone’s daughter.”

Laws continues to advocate for a federal ban on revenge porn, and, in addition to being featured in The Most Hated Man on the Internet, Laws still appears on broadcast news — often to discuss her anti-revenge porn activism. Most recently, she’s been seen on Access Hollywood and The News Desk with Tom Newton Dunn, per IMDb. She maintains a Twitter account, where she discusses everything from her political views to the skunks plaguing her neighborhood.

Laws is married to Oxford-educated attorney Charles Parselle, who is also a published author and Kayla’s stepfather. The couple lives in Los Angeles.