Background
This year, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) released a draft bill to create new offences intended to prohibit people from sharing private sexual images and films of others without their consent – a practice that is colloquially known as ‘revenge porn’.
The ALP called for submissions on its exposure draft of the Criminal Code Amendment (Private Sexual Material) Bill 2015 (Draft Bill). In early October 2015, Victorian Women Lawyers (VWL) made a submission in relation to the Draft Bill.
VWL submission
In principle, VWL supports the creation of specific criminal offences at the Commonwealth level to deal with ‘revenge porn’, as proposed under the Draft Bill. We believe that there is currently a gap in the law in relation to this issue and that it ought be addressed in order to protect women from an emerging form of intimate partner violence. VWL considers that revenge porn is a form of family violence and sexual assault, and that accordingly it constitutes gendered violence.
We submitted that any law reform in the area should be inclusive and sensitive to the needs of victims. We also submitted that legislative change should be part of a broader policy approach, including funding of appropriate programs, encouraging corporate responsibility and community education to address gender violence and victim blaming.
VWL’s submissions were aimed at ensuring that the concept of private sexual material appropriately reflects cultural and diverse gender and sexuality differences, that unlawful threats should not be limited by the method of their delivery and that the effect on victims should not be a factor in establishing the offence.
The Bill
As noted above the Bill has since been introduced to the House of Representatives. On 12 October 2015 the Hon Tim Watts MP made a second reading speech on the Bill.
VWL is pleased to note that the Bill directly addresses some of the key concerns raised in its submission on the Draft Bill. In particular:
- the definition of private sexual material has been expanded to be more trans- and culturally inclusive
- altered or ‘photoshopped’ images now potentially fall within the definition of private sexual material
- the concept of making a threat to disseminate private sexual material, previously limited to threats issued via a telecommunications provider, has been expanded to include a threat communicated in any manner and where there is a risk that the making of the threat will cause distress or harm.