A Newly Proposed Law Could See Revenge-Seeking Exes Imprisoned For Five Years

Will this end victim blaming?

Trigger warning: This article deals with sexual violence, abusive relationships and pornography.

Earlier this week, a criminal code amendment on the topic of private sexual material was proposed by MP Tim Watts. Essentially what this means is Watts hopes to update the 1995 edition of the law to include ‘revenge porn’ as a serious offence, nationwide.

‘Revenge porn’ is the sharing or publication of private sexual images and/or films of another person without their consent. The new law aims to protect victims in all cases, some of which include humiliation and harm to reputation, abuse, and distribution for benefit. Under the proposed law, guilty parties can find themselves imprisoned for up to five years.

The amendment aims to particularly protect those who find their images shared by exes (images that may have been considered consensual during the relationship).

“These images can be sent to people’s friends, colleagues or family causing serious and ongoing harm to their career, reputation or mental health.” - Tim Watts

The publication and sharing of “private sexual material” should not only be made illegal on account of its blatant disregard for privacy, but also as a means of stopping victim blaming. (It's been found that many of those victims don't go on to report the invasion of their privacy, usually out of humiliation.) Hopefully the amendment will return the blame to those who break another’s trust by spreading private material.

The threat of distribution is also included in the new amendment, in order to protect those in abusive relationships. The punishment for this will be three years imprisonment.

'Revenge porn' has also been likened to sexual assault, as explained by Watts: “Both represent an invasive, sexually-based violation and a loss of control.”

In 2013, South Australia passed a law making the distribution of such images a criminal offence. Victoria followed suit in 2014.

The proposed federal bill will take into account a range of cultural understandings, sexualities and gender identities. With this bill, Watts aims to send out the message that “this kind of behaviour will not be tolerated in Australia.”

If you are in an abusive situation please seek help:

Call 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732) or visit Reachout.com

Sarah Bellis is one of Student Edge’s student contributors. Learn more about the contributors program.