Revenge Porn Could Soon Be Illegal in the UK

Revenge porn could soon be illegal in the UK, according to hints from Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.

Speaking to the Commons in response to a parliamentary question from conservative MP Maria Miller, Grayling suggested changes to existing sexual offences laws could be brought in to address the issue.

Given the government’s “war on porn” with regards to above-board, consensual viewing, it’s about time it considered action against a variant that pretty much everyone can agree is unacceptable behaviour: Making public explicit photos of someone else without their permission, in order to cause them distress.

“What I'd say to you today is the government is very open to having a serious discussion about this with a view to taking appropriate action in the autumn if we can identify the best way of doing so,” said Grayling in Parliament. That’s a big “if” for sure, and it could go many ways, but it’s a start.

Revenge porn—which nominally involves jilted lovers posting photos of their exes, which smut-rakers like Hunter Moore later turned into a microeconomy all its own—has been on the rise in the UK, with charities and online support groups recently all reporting an increase in cases. While a couple of US states have brought forward bills to ban the practice, there’s not much to help victims in the UK.

Perhaps the closest the law gets is with the Malicious Communications Act, which is in place “to make provision for the punishment of persons who send or deliver letters or other articles for the purpose of causing distress or anxiety.” Fortunately it has been updated to include electronic communications, but it still usually concerns written words.

Then there’s the Public Order Act, which deals with harassment, but which again heavily references “words” and “writing,” and which usually requires several offences.

But in the case of revenge porn, the old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words rings painfully true. And even if an angry ex posts one photo online just once, it’s not as simple as saying sorry and taking it down. This is the internet, after all; that picture is likely to have been copied, pasted, and shared until it’s more or less invincible, perhaps with your personal information and contact details right there with it.

So considering changes that would help outlaw revenge porn is a good step, but it’s going to take some work. The US laws already in place haven’t proven to be the most effective so far, with major loopholes such as an exemption of selfies (which surely must make up the majority of explicit images shared privately?) and little to stop sites hosting revenge porn material, as evidenced by the difficulty of shutting down Moore's site isanyoneup.com.

Moore eventually found himself the wrong side of the law, but not really because of revenge porn—it turned out he’d been stealing photos too. In a separate case, a man behind a separate revenge porn site was arrested in the US—but again, not because of laws against the content. He’d been blackmailing women whose pictures were posted on the site into paying for their removal.

Unless people are actually punished under the laws, they’re pretty pointless, and if the UK’s serious about tackling revenge porn, it’ll have to consider the question of what exactly counts as an offence very carefully.

There are a few dissenting voices. Gabrielle Guillemin of free speech campaign Article 19 questioned “whether it is for the criminal law to get involved in what is very often, ultimately, the fallout of failed relationships.”

I’d counter that, yes, in this case, it is. Those posting revenge porn aren’t doing so to exercise their right of expression; they’re doing so to deliberately cause harm to someone else. The motivation is malicious; that’s why it’s called “revenge” porn (and we can expect tough criteria defending anything that doesn’t fall into that category).

I have more sympathy with women’s charities who argue instead that the law doesn’t go far enough. Polly Neate, chief executive of Women’s Aid, told the BBC that, “To be meaningful, any attempt to tackle revenge porn must also take account of all other kinds of psychological abuse and controlling behaviour, and revenge porn is just another form of coercive control.”

When legislating against revenge porn, this bigger picture is perhaps part of the problem, but also potentially part of the solution. Protecting victims from sexual abuse is not as simple as banning one specific behaviour—something that, as we’ve seen with the US revenge porn laws, inevitably leaves definitional loopholes to be exploited.

Recognising that revenge porn is unacceptable is a first step. Recognising that the issue is just one small part of a broader problem of abuse that needs greater examination is the marathon.