It’s good to see a commitment from Justice Minister Chris Grayling to do something to tackle the appalling practice of revenge pornography, where somebody posts a private intimate photograph on a public website as a means of causing distress to a former partner. As we’ve written many times recently, there is currently very little that the victim can do about it. Julian Huppert was the first to raise the issue in the House of Commons last month, and he wrote that he favoured a change in the law here.
As Liberal Democrats, we believe in empowering people to make their own choices. Giving consent to take a photo, or taking it yourself, is not the same as giving consent for intimate pictures to be broadcast to all and sundry.
It’s good to see that acton to tackle revenge porn has cross party support though. Yesterday’s comments from Grayling came in response to a question by former culture secretary Maria Miller who had an Adjournment Debate in the Commons last month.
Mr Grayling told the Commons: “It’s clearly becoming a bigger problem in our society.
“What I’d say to you today is the Government is very open to having a serious discussion about this with a view to taking appropriate action in the autumn if we can identify the best way of doing so.”
Campaigners have warned that the images can destroy people’s careers and relationships.
Julian Huppert and Tim Farron have co-sponsored an Early Day Motion (a kind of House of Commons petition) which also has cross-party support. EDM 192 says:
That this House is deeply concerned at the growth of revenge porn, which typically sees individuals publishing online explicit and intimate photographs and videos of ex-partners; notes that whilst the images are often taken with full consent, their dissemination is not; further notes that the dissemination of these images have ruined lives, destroyed careers and caused untold psychological damage; understands that currently there is no specific legislation to deal with the problem; and urges the Government to bring forward legislative proposals to criminally sanction individuals who breach the privacy of others through these vengeful acts.
Photo by Alan Wolf
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6 Comments
A huge amount of credit deserves to go to Hannah Thompson whose brave stand on this issue is what has brought about the likely passage of legislation to deal with this evil.
I signed the petition earlier and have never quite understood the hesitancy towards making it illegal, but then again I’m not a lawyer.
Antony, you are absolutely right on that.
Revenge Porn dissemination is disgraceful.
The original acts which create it and make it potentially available are stupid.
While it is sensible to have legislation to deal with the worst cases which might get prosecuted, prevention is generally a lot better than cure. Surely, if we believe we can persuade people to not use mobile phones while driving, we also ought to be able to find a way to persuade people to not lay themselves open to this form of abuse – as well, perhaps, as trying to make people see that ‘feeling wronged’ is no excuse for a bigger wrong.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with sharing nakedness with the person you love, and capturing it for posterity. That’s not stupid at all.
What’s stupid is that people discovering that you have been naked, or that you have had sex, and that this has been captured as a photo or a video can be enough to cause you reputational damage.
(And what’s appalling is that people share these things to intentionally hurt their ex partners.)
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with sharing nakedness with the person you love, and capturing it for posterity. That’s not stupid at all.
It is pretty stupid.