It has identified gaps in the law: for example, upskirting is currently a criminal offence, but downblousing (taking an image, usually from above, down a female’s top) is not. Likewise, sharing an altered or faked image by, for example, adding someone’s head to a pornographic image, is not covered.
While motivations such as sexual gratification and causing distress are covered by current laws, other motivations, like coercion or sharing images as a joke, are not covered, the commission says. It said threats to share are not adequately covered by the law, especially when a threat is made to humiliate, coerce, control or distress an individual.
To remedy these gaps, the commission proposes expanding the types of behaviours outlawed by existing criminal laws to include downblousing and sharing altered intimate images, such as deepfakes.
It proposes criminalising threats to share intimate images (including other forms of what it calls ‘sextortion’), and suggests giving automatic anonymity to all victims of intimate image abuse. Finally, it proposes creating a framework of four offences covering a broader range of behaviours and motivations.
The taking and sharing of intimate images without the subject’s consent can cause serious and significant harm to the victim, the Law Commission says, including depression, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder, worsening physical health, withdrawal from public or online spaces, financial harm through time off work and, in some instances, attempted suicide and self-harm.
Professor Penney Lewis, criminal law commissioner at the Law Commission, said: ‘For victims, having their intimate images taken or shared without consent can be an incredibly damaging and humiliating experience.’
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