Revenge Porn Could Finally Be Criminalised In Australia, As MPs Propose Bill

Labor MPs Terri Butler and Tim Watts are currently on the frontline of addressing the legality of revenge porn in Australia, as ABC News reports a private members’ bill—making revenge porn a criminal offence—by the two MPs is set to be proposed.

While Victoria and South Australia have already made strides in the fight against images shared online without consent, Butler and Watts are seeking to amend the legality of revenge porn nation-wide.

“It can be humiliating for someone to have an image or a recording distributed without their consent. It can affect their life, it can affect their mental health,” Terri Butler told ABC News. Tim Watts said the new legislation was fundamentally about constructing laws on consent. “I don’t actually think this is a privacy issue, this is a consent issue and a respect issue,” Watts said.

Earlier this year, a nude photo leak affecting hundreds of women in South Australia made headlines nationally, with the following commentary by writer Clementine Ford, over Sunrise’s coverage on the story causing further, heated debate, and eventually resulting in Facebook temporarily banning Ford from her own account.

As always:

Via ABC.

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