In a revenge porn crackdown, laws announced today mean police and prosecutors no longer need to prove perpetrators intended to cause distress, and can be arrested and even jailed for uploading content.
Amendments to the Online Safety Bill will make it easier to charge and convict offenders, with those found guilty facing up to six months in prison.
While in cases where it is proved an offender also sought to cause distress, alarm, or embarrassment, or shared material for sexual gratification, they could be given a two-year jail term. And, if perpetrators are found to have distributed the image for sexual gratification, they could be added to the sex offenders’ register.
Revenge porn was criminalised in 2015 but, before now, prosecutors had to prove there was an intention to cause humiliation or distress.
TV personality Georgia Harrison, whose ex-partner Stephen Bear was jailed earlier this year for posting intimate footage of her on his OnlyFans account, was among those to call for a change to legislation.
It follows a review by the Law Commission which also recommended reforming measures protecting against intimate image abuse.
Harrison said: “The reforms to the law that has been passed today are going to go down in history as a turning point for generations to come and will bring peace of mind to so many victims who have reached out to me whilst also giving future victims the justice they deserve.”
But what is classed as revenge porn and what can you do if you become a victim of it? Here is all we know.
What is revenge porn?
Revenge porn is when a person shares “private, sexual materials” of another person, without their consent.
This can be in the form of photos or videos and previously had to be committed with the purpose of causing embarrassment or distress to be a prosecutable offence.
Under new laws, that is no longer the case, and people can be prosecuted for simply sharing them.
The sharing of material does not have to be published. The offence applies to both online and online, and relates to both images which are shared electronically or in a more traditional way. It can mean sharing by uploading of images on the internet, sharing by text and e-mail, or showing someone a physical or electronic image.
What are the laws around revenge porn?
Under the new laws, private materials are considered as those which could be seen as “showing anything not usually seen in public”.
Revenge porn does not only mean images that show the “pubic region”. The Government states that, under the law, revenge porn is anything that a “reasonable person would consider to be sexual”. It could mean a picture of someone who is engaged in sexual behaviour or posing in a “sexually provocative way”.
There is no longer the threshold applied that states the person posting must have done it with intent to cause upset; now the law states anyone uploading anything sexual without consent can be prosecuted.
If you are found guilty of revenge porn offences, sentences can range from community service to two years behind bars, say experts.
How to report revenge porn
There is a charity that is dedicated to helping people affected by revenge porn. The Revenge Porn Helpline is a UK service that supports adults who are victims and do not know where to turn.
The Helpline was established in 2015 alongside the legislation and is run by a “small team of passionate and motivated individuals who are here and ready to help”.
Victims are encouraged to report the incident to police, by calling 101 or going to a police station to speak directly.
