Sending nude pictures isn’t anything to be taken lightly. Despite it being such an intimate act, nude pictures and videos can unfortunately all too often be shared without consent.
Now, this could lead to a few months in prison as new changes to the Online Safety Bill will help when trying to convict people who share revenge porn.
The bill will also look at undertaking deep-fake-pornography-explicit images or videos that have been digitally exploited to make it look like someone else without the consent of those in the images or videos.
Revenge porn was criminalised in 2015, but the new amendments to the bill made on Tuesday will take away the need for prosecutors to demonstrate if the perpetrators intended to create harm.
What is the online safety bill?
The Online Safety Bill is designed to protect children and adults online. The bill holds social media companies responsible for the safety of users of their platforms.
It was introduced in March 2022 under Boris Johnson, but has been changed several times during its journey through Parliament.
Earlier this year prime minister Rishi Sunak agreed that social media bosses could face jail over harmful content posted on their platforms after more than 50 Conservative backbenchers backed an amendment demanding the change.
However, Sunak was criticised by MPs for being too slow to act in relation to Andrew Tate.
Sunak did not take the opportunity to directly call out Tate, but replied: “With regard to funding, we announced in the autumn statement £2 billion of extra funding for our schools.
“But I’m also proud that this government has introduced the world-leading, world-first Online Safety Bill, which specifically improves protections for children and puts very strict obligations and penalties on tech companies for enforcing them,” he said.
What changes are included in the Online Safety Bill?
Perpetrators who share intimate images or videos without consent will face a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment, according to the Ministry of Justice.
This comes after Stephen Bear, the partner of The Only Way Is Essex and Towie star Georgia Harrison, was found guilty of voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private, sexual images and films after he published a video of the pair having sex on his OnlyFans.
Sky News reported that Harrison said: “The reforms to the law that have 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,”
She continued: “I’m so grateful to everyone who supported me throughout this campaign and it just goes to show how amazing our country is that the government have reacted so quickly to push through these amendments.”
“Intimate image abuse causes significant distress to victims and survivors and often exists as part of a wider pattern of abuse that continues offline,” Domestic abuse commissioner Nicole Jacobs added.
“This is a great day for victims of revenge porn. These changes to the Online Safety Bills signify how harmful revenge porn can be and the consequences left on the victims. It’s just a start, but hopefully we can crack down on revenge porn for good.”