Revenge Porn To Become A Criminal Offence In the UK

The United Kingdom has proposed a new law which will come down hard on people ‘who maliciously share sexually explicit pictures of former partners’.

People who do such things will be subject to prosecution according to new laws proposed by Justice Secretary Chris Grayling which will make revenge porn a specific offence in the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill, which is currently going through Parliament.

The change will cover the sharing of images both online and offline. It will mean that images posted to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter will be caught by the offence, as well as those that are shared via text message. Images shared via email, on a website or the distribution of physical copies will also be caught. Those convicted will face a maximum sentence of 2 years in prison.

The offence will cover photographs or films which show people engaged in sexual activity or depicted in a sexual way or with their genitals exposed, where what is shown would not usually be seen in public. Victims and others will be able to report offences to the police to investigate. Officers will work with the Crown Prosecution Service to take forward cases for prosecution.

Those found to have committed a sexual offence can continue to be prosecuted under existing legislation, which can lead to sentences of up to 14 years in prison.

Hopefully this will lead to less sextape exposes from there but we do not see this law seeing the light of day anytime soon in Zimbabwe. California has banned revenge porn and it is time to restore dignity to human beings. In Zimbabwe some newspapers have now dedicated inches in columns to revenge porn with no sense of conscience especially in this smart phone generation.