New wideranging civil and criminal laws proposed to stop revenge porn sickos
REVENGE porn victims will soon receive a reprieve with tough new civil and criminal penalties to come into force across the country.
EXCLUSIVE
TEENS who sext and share images without consent, or exes posting “revenge porn” of their former lovers, could face a scaled points system of civil penalties from as early as next year.
And tough nationally consistent state-based criminal penalties — including jail time — are a step closer with the states today (Friday) agreeing to a national framework for laws to crack down on the practice.
The Turnbull government will on Saturday release its long-awaited discussion paper on a civil penalties regime for so-called “revenge porn” — the non-consensual sharing of intimate images and video.
The paper discusses the potential measures to combat the trend which is on the rise and future penalties will target both perpetrators and sites that host intimate images.
Those who have knowledge of or participate in the sharing of “revenge porn” will also face sanctions.
It is the first major action by the federal government to crackdown on the practice that can destroy lives.
Revenge porn has more than doubled over the past two years and now affects more than one in every five Australians.
Among the civil penalty measures being considered and outlined in today’s discussion paper include enforceable undertakings, injunctions, infringement notices, formal warnings, and take down notices.
The civil penalty regime would be overseen by the eSafety Commissioner who would be given additional powers to investigate complaints, in a similar manner to the cyber-bullying complaints scheme.
Penalties would be established in conjunction with a dedicated complaints portal to be run by the Office of the eSafety Commissioner and expected to be live in the second half of this year.
The discussion paper calls for feedback on potential enforcement measures with submissions to be received until 30 June. Penalties will then be finalised and legislation put to federal parliament later in the year.
Last month a special investigation by News Corp Australia met with the team of cyber experts, private investigators and former police who are working to remove revenge porn images from the web.
They act on complaints from the public but also monitor websites like Aussie Sluts and shameyourex.com.
Since 1 July 2016 the Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner has received 370 complaints from Australians related to image-based abuse.
A total of 128 investigations into non-consensually shared images of underage Australian women, resulting in referrals for removal of those images have been completed over that time.
Around 50 overseas imageboard sites specifically target Australians — predominantly women.
Of the content monitored on these sites, Queensland is the most prominent Australian state mentioned in posts by users.
A total of 53 per cent of cases referencing a state come from QLD, 20 per cent are from NSW, 16 per cent from Victoria, 9 per cent WA and 2 per cent from South Australia.
E-Safety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant praised the government’s steps towards tougher laws.
“At last count there were more than 3000 sites set up for the purpose of “sexploitation” around the world. Users of these sites actively ‘hunt’ and trade these images like footy cards, often posting personal information like full names and what school the person went to,” Ms Inman Grant said.
“We need a more powerful deterrent to discourage this ‘virtual card-swapping’ and disrupt this insidious culture.”
Minister for Women Michaelia Cash said it was vitally important to give victims some recourse on this trend.
“We have listened to victims and law enforcement agencies, and it is clear that in the first instance what victims want is for these images to be taken down as quickly as possible,” Senator Cash told News Corp Australia.
“By also penalising perpetrators and the sites which host this content, we are sending a strong message that this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated.”
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield said the Commonwealth had a responsibility to take action on this behaviour.
“It is important that we have in place strong and consistent regulation at the Commonwealth level to protect Australians from image-based abuse and to hold perpetrators to account,” he said.
A meeting of the COAG Law, Crime and Community Safety Council yesterday (Friday) agreed to a national statement of principles relating to the criminalisation of non-consensual sharing of intimate images.
Currently Victoria is the only state that has laws directly relating to revenge porn.
New South Wales and Western Australia have flagged introducing criminal measures but are yet to take formal action.
The Commonwealth has laws relating to the use of a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence, the maximum penalty is three years imprisonment and/or a fine of up to $32,400
Other states and territories have broad state offences that have been used in “revenge porn” cases however in many circumstances the absence of a specific mention relating to imaged-based abuse has made the case difficult to prove or receive appropriate penalties.
Yesterday’s (Friday) principals included a commitment to prosecute offenders of revenge porn, considerations of the different technologies employed to disseminate such material and in any development of legislation there being no onus on an intent to cause harm but just simply that the material has been shared.
Justice Minister Michael Keenan who attended today’s meeting said the framework would mean there was no safe place for perpetrators across Australia.
“The national statement of principles will give state and territory governments a shared framework to develop and review criminal laws relating to the non-consensual sharing of intimate images,” Mr Keenan told News Corp Australia.
“The principles reflect protocols agreed with states and territories that recognise that state and territory police should generally handle criminal investigations into cybercrimes against the person.”