Senate committee recommends ‘take down’ legislation over revenge porn

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news A new report from the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee has recommended that government be given powers to take down ‘non-consensual sharing of intimate images’, otherwise known as ‘revenge porn’.

Other recommendations were also made, including for new legislation that would see sharing intimate images of individuals without their consent become outlawed.

The committee was asked on 12 November 2015 to investigate the issue of revenge porn, in particular, the impact it has on victims and more widely in the Australian community, potential policy responses to this growing problem, and the response taken to revenge porn by Parliaments in other Australian jurisdictions and comparable overseas jurisdictions.

The committee defines revenge porn as:

“Images obtained (consensually or otherwise) in an intimate relationship; photographs or videos of sexual assault/s; images obtained from the use of hidden devices to record another person; stolen images from the Cloud or a person’s computer or other device; and pornographic or sexually explicit images that have been photo-shopped, showing the victim’s face.”

While revenge porn is often carried out by ex-partners who distribute images seeking revenge, it can also involve acquaintances or strangers who distribute images in order to “coerce, blackmail, humiliate or embarrass another person, or those who distribute images for sexual gratification, fun, social notoriety or financial gain”, the committee said.

The problem is becoming “increasingly prevalent”, it added, with the increasing use of mobile phones and other devices, as well as the “pervasive ubiquity” of social media. Additionally, women are more likely than men to be victims of revenge sharing of media.

A 2015 survey on online abuse and harassment conducted at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), reported that 1 in 10 Australians have had a nude or semi-nude image of them distributed online or sent onto others without their permission.

Furthermore, the committee pointed out, analysis by The Economist from 2014 showed there are at least 3,000 pornography websites functioning with a “revenge purpose”.

Until now, South Australia and Victoria are the only states to have introduced specific legislation regarding revenge porn, with both states making it an offence to distribute invasive or intimate images of a person without their consent.

After taking into account the issues discussed in the report, the committee recommended that federal and state governments should legislate new offences for knowingly or recklessly recording or sharing an intimate image without consent and threatening to take and/or share intimate images without consent – irrespective of whether or not those images exist.

It further suggested that the government considers empowering a Commonwealth agency to issue ‘take down’ notices for images deemed revenge porn, as well as other recommendations (pdf).

In October of last year, Labor backbenchers Tim Watts and Terri Butler introduced a bill to crack down on revenge porn, saying in The Huffington Post that the “humiliating and harassing” practice should be seen as a form of sexual assault and should not be tolerated in Australia. The recommendations of the Senate’s Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee are in relation to that bill.

1 COMMENT

  1. And how will we effect this “Take Down”, exactly? I just love meaningless verbiage!

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