A Senate committee recommends the government criminalise the unauthorised sharing of intimate photos, an increasingly common practice known as revenge porn.
Anyone who takes intimate images without consent, and anyone who shares them or publishes them online, could be prosecuted if the report’s recommendations are adopted.
The internet has made the sharing of personal images without consent easier, and no federal laws currently exist to prohibit the practice.
“Non-consensual sharing of intimate images is a serious and growing problem in Australia, facilitated in part by technological advances and increasing use of social media,” the report says. “Non-consensual sharing of intimate images can have a significant impact on victim, psychologically and physically, as well as being damaging to the victim’s reputation and standing.”
The commonwealth director of public prosecutions says that criminalising revenge porn will “fill a gap” in existing legislation.
“Aspects of a non-consensual sharing of intimate images offence ... are ‘not contemplated’ in the current legislation,” the report says. “The present situation is unacceptable: victims of non-consensual sharing of intimate images should not be further disempowered and damaged by an inability to pursue alleged perpetrators.”
Criminalising the practice would send a strong message that the community did not accept the use of the internet to shame or harass, said Labor’s Tim Watts, who was involved in the inquiry.
“Revenge porn is an extreme example of a broader issue around the use of technology in domestic violence,” he says.
Domestic violence service providers have recorded an increase in the number of women seeking help for online harassment – and many services struggle to meet demand.
The report also recommends that police and prosecutors undertake greater education on the issue, following the comments of a senior police officer who said victims should “grow up” and stop taking nude photos of themselves.
“People just have to grow up in terms of what they’re taking and loading on to the computer because the risk is so high,” Australian federal police assistant commissioner Shane Connelly said earlier this month.
“[They say] if you go out in the snow without clothes on you’ll catch a cold – if you go on to the computer without your clothes on, you’ll catch a virus,” he said. “It’s a wicked analogy but it’s pretty realistic.”
Domestic and sexual violence experts note that “victim-blaming attitudes are still relatively common” with online crimes like revenge porn, Watts said.
Government MPs and senators on the committee did not provide a dissenting report, broadly agreeing with all the recommendations.
However, they label the timing of the review “premature” because the Council of Australian Governments (Coag) is currently looking at the issue.
Watts is unconvinced, saying if the government agrees with the recommendations “the very easy next step it can take” is to adopt them.
“I don’t think there are many people in this parliament who would vote against criminalising revenge porn,” he says.
Watts and his Labor colleague, Terri Butler, co-sponsored a private members’ bill that would criminalise revenge porn and ensure that people who engaged in the practice faced up to three years in jail.
• On 26 February 2016 this article was amended. A previous version said Tim Watts was on the Senate committee.
