Revenge Porn
In our modern age it has become common for people to record and photograph everything even intimate images and actions. This has led to spurned lovers or ex partners publishing explicit photos or videos of their ex-partner without consent on the internet usually via social media. The motive is one of revenge humiliating the person photographed.
It is a form of domestic violence. The Crimes Amendment (Intimate Images) Act 2017 (NSW) was passed criminalising this technological form of stalking and abuse. Australian academic Dr Nicola Henry estimates that one in five Australians have experienced revenge porn, she says “sharing intimate images on social media is not just about revenge it is about using very personal and intimate images to control, abuse and humiliate people in ways that go well beyond the relationship having gone sour.”
There are four new offences:
• intentionally recording an intimate image of another person without consent;
• intentionally distributing an intimate image of another person without consent;
• threatening to record and or distribute an intimate image of another person without consent; and
• failing to take down or destroy an intimate image recorded or distributed without consent when ordered by the courts to do so.
Penalties for being found guilty of the above offences include up to 3 years in prison, an $11,000 fine or both. A person under the age of 16 cannot give consent and offenders under the age of 16 may also be liable. The new laws are a timely response to sexual, domestic and family violence and a timely message that such behaviour is not humorous but criminal.
Geoff Yeo at Peacockes Solicitors can assist is this and any other legal issues you may have.