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Revenge porn: time for action

13 January 2023 / Emily McFadden
Issue: 8008 / Categories: Features , Criminal , Media , Technology
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Emily McFadden examines the growing impact of image-based sexual abuse & the importance of securing anonymity for its victims
  • The law has been slow to recognise the scale of the problem of revenge porn and put in place proper legislation to deal with it. However, positive steps have been taken recently with the Online Safety Bill and an announcement that victims will have anonymity in revenge porn cases.

Revenge porn is rarely out of the headlines—in December last year, reality TV contestant Stephen Bear was found guilty of voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private, sexual photographs and films. In June 2022, Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna reached a settlement in their revenge porn case as the trial began.

However, revenge porn isn’t something that just affects the famous. According to Refuge’s ‘The Naked Threat’ report in July 2020, one in 14 adults in England and Wales have been threatened with sharing an intimate image. This increases to one in seven young women aged between 18 and

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NEWS
Commercial leasehold, the defence of insanity and ‘consent’ in the criminal law are among the next tranche of projects for the Law Commission
Tech companies will be legally required to prevent material that encourages or assists serious self-harm appearing on their platforms, under Online Safety Act 2023 regulations due to come into force in the autumn
The Bar has a culture of ‘impunity’ and ‘collusive bystanding’ in which making a complaint is deemed career-ending due to a ‘cohort of untouchables’ at the top, Baroness Harriet Harman KC has found
Lawyers have broadly welcomed plans to electronically tag up to 22,000 more offenders, scrap most prison terms below a year and make prisoners ‘earn’ early release
David Lammy, Ellie Reeves and Baroness Levitt have taken up office at the Ministry of Justice, following the cabinet reshuffle
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