Lacklustre laws on image-based sex abuse like revenge porn ‘letting women down’

Women are being let down by lacklustre laws which are failing to protect them from image-based sexual abuse such as revenge porn and fake porn offences, a report into the experiences of victims has suggested.

Victims say an “unfamiliar, complex and shifting terrain” of changing laws and online regulation is leaving them in limbo, according to Shattered Lives and Myths: a Report on Image-Based Sexual Abuse.

Advances in technology have also outpaced existing legislation, prompting calls for a comprehensive shake-up of sex abuse laws that would mean image-based sexual abuse is treated as a sexual offence.

Academics from universities across the UK, who surveyed victims of image-based sexual abuse as well as police, lawyers and support workers during a six-month period, say existing laws are insufficient to deal with crimes such as revenge porn, fake porn, and upskirting.

It comes after a Government announcement on Wednesday that the Law Commission has been asked to consider whether existing laws were sufficient.

Clare McGlynn, professor of law at Durham University and one of the report’s authors, said: “Due to the serious legal and policy failings identified in this report, we are effectively gambling with people’s lives.

“We found that image-based sexual abuse can shatter lives, often experienced as an entire ‘social rupture’ of their world.

“We must overhaul our out-of-date and piecemeal laws, including criminalising the paralysing and life-threatening impact of threats, and recognising the significant harms of fake porn.

“We need a comprehensive new law criminalising all forms of non-consensual taking or sharing of sexual images, including threats and altered images.

“We must do far more to support victims to reclaim control of their lives, with better resourced and specialist support to get images taken down, as well as free and accessible legal advice and advocacy.”

Revenge porn – the sharing of private or sexual images or videos of a person without their consent – became an offence in England and Wales in April 2015, but falls under communications legislation, meaning victims are not granted automatic anonymity like under sexual offences laws.

Fake porn – sometimes known as a deepfake – refers to composite images or videos where a victim’s face is often grafted onto a naked body. The perpetrator usually either distributes the image on social media or to a victim’s contacts, or will make threats to do so. The offence is not currently covered by a specific law, meaning the route to a prosecution can be difficult.

Upskirting became a criminal offence in England and Wales in April 2019 following a high-profile campaign. However, academics said the law fails to cover grey areas about motive.

The report, seen by the PA news agency, will be presented to MPs on Monday. It calls for “a comprehensive criminal law” covering all forms of non-consensual taking and / or sharing of private sexual images, including threats, while automatic anonymity is extended to all complainants of image-based sexual abuse.

It also recommends better education in schools, universities and among employers about image-based sexual abuse, and to introduce training and policies to respond to allegations or disclosures of such images.

The report found that while most social media and internet companies have processes to remove harmful images, those processes are “often slow and complicated”.

One woman, who was blackmailed by an ex after being coerced into sharing explicit images of herself, said her “whole world just crumbled” the day she found the content had been shared online without her permission.

She said: “I couldn’t go out and I couldn’t go to school to pick up my children. I was completely withdrawn from the world. I attempted suicide at one time – it’s torture for your soul, it really is.”

Maria Miller, chairman of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, told PA the law needed to catch up with technology.

She said: “What this report does is provide even more evidence of the impact that image-based sexual abuse can have on individuals.

“The law is supposed to treat crimes that happen online in the same way it would treat that offence happening on the street, say, so one hopes that the Government is taking note that things need to change. There needs to be a specific offence for image-based sexual abuse.”

Copyright (c) PA Media Ltd. 2019, All Rights Reserved. Picture (c) Durham University.