The NSW Government Is Finally Taking “Revenge Porn” Seriously
Proposed new laws could see people jailed for sharing explicit images without consent.
The NSW government has announced that it will follow in the footsteps of Victoria and South Australia by criminalising “revenge porn”. The state’s Attorney-General, Gabrielle Upton, has today promised “strong laws” to deal with the “distribution of intimate or sexually explicit images without consent”.
In April a parliamentary committee suggested NSW should update its privacy laws to better capture serious invasions of privacy like the distribution of private photos and videos. Last month a website hosting thousands of pornographic photos, including photos of girls under the age of 18, was shut down by the Children’s eSafety Commissioner but re-emerged just days later.
Is Australia Slowly Getting Its Act Together Against Revenge Porn?
The NSW government hasn’t released the details of the laws yet, or what kind of punishment is being proposed. In Victoria you can face up to two years imprisonment for distributing images without consent and up to one year for threatening to distribute them.
According to a statement released by Upton, the sharing of explicit photos without consent “Often involves ex-partners seeking revenge and is particularly troubling in domestic violence situations, where a victim may be forced to participate in the production of explicit images.”
“These images can have a devastating emotional and social effect on the person pictured and can be used as a way to deliberately humiliate, control or harass the intended victim,” Upton said.
There are currently no national laws that deal explicitly with revenge porn. However Labor has proposed legislation that could see people jailed for up for three years for sharing images without consent.
The NSW government has announced that consultation will begin in mid-September to help come up with “the definition of ‘intimate’ images, how they are shared or distributed, and what penalties should apply, including how the offence should apply to children and young people.”
–
Feature image via Chrissy Chambers — an LA woman currently trying to prosecute her ex (who filmed and posted her sexual assault online) under new revenge porn laws in the UK. You can read more or donate to her legal fund here.