Update: Mischa Barton Speaks Out About Sex Tape Scandal, Her "Absolute Worst Fear"

Update: Mischa Barton has personally responded to the upsetting news regarding an alleged sex tape featuring her and an ex partner. The tape is reportedly being auctioned to various adult video companies to be released to the public. In a video posted by New York Daily News reporter Nancy Dillon from her Los Angeles press conference on March 15, Barton emotionally explains the situation currently at hand. She alleges that someone she previously "loved" and "respected" is responsible for this nasty violation of privacy. Her lawyer, Lisa Bloom, is calling it a case of "revenge porn."

Here is her statement, in full: "I just want to say that I have been put through an incredibly hard and trying time. This is a painful situation, and my absolute worst fear as realized when I learned that someone I thought I loved and trusted was filming my most interested and private moments without my consent [and] with hidden cameras. And then I learned something even worse — that someone is trying to sell these videos and make them public. I came forward to fight this not only for myself, but for all the women out there. I want to protect them from the pain and humiliation that I have had to go through. No woman should have to go through this, and I am beyond grateful to Lisa Bloom, and the Bloom Firm. And to all of my friends who have helped me through this horrific experience."

Mischa Barton's lawyer means business. After reports surfaced that an alleged sex tape featuring the actress was being shopped around to different pornography companies, her lawyer Lisa Bloom released a statement threatening those responsible.

"I am very proud to represent actress Mischa Barton, who is courageously standing up for her rights,” the statement begins. "It has been reported that naked or sexually explicit images of Ms. Barton are being ‘shopped around.’ Ms. Barton does not consent to any disclosure of any such images. She believes that she was recorded without her consent by someone she was seeing at the time."

“There’s a name for this disgusting conduct: revenge pornography,” Bloom adds. Revenge porn is when sexually explicit photos or videos are shared either as an act of revenge or simply without the consent of the subject. According to a recent survey by SKYN Condoms, 1 in 3 people have shared a sexual photo without the subject's permission.

Revenge porn laws vary state by state, but when Refinery29 spoke to Daniel S. Szalkiewicz of Daniel Szalkiewicz & Associates, a firm that specializes in internet defamation, privacy, and revenge porn, back in January about Bella Thorne retweeting a nude photo, he explained that the law, found in California Penal Code 647 (j)(4)(A), is very specific.

"There needs to be an implicit understanding between the parties that the image will not be disseminated to other people," Szalkiewicz told us.

Bloom is confident that, should the case be taken to court, she will win.

"Revenge pornography is a form of sexual assault, and it is also a crime and a civil wrong in California," she wrote. "And we will not stand for it."

Whether it's one person or many people who have gotten ahold of this recording, Bloom's message is the same: "We will find you, and we will come after you. We will fully prosecute you under every available criminal and civil law. You proceed at your peril."