Revenge pornography to become an offence in England and Wales

The bill contains an amendment dealing with images transmitted over social media including Twitter and Facebook as well as those sent via text message and those distributed physically. There are plans to also make the practice an offence in Scotland.

Requests to delete content are often ignored as material is hosted outside of the UK. In some instances, a removal request may even draw more attention to the content.

Eight police forces in England and Wales provided there were 149 allegations, between 1 January 2012 and July 2014 against people for uploading the content.

Most of the victims were women, with police acting on six incidents.

A lack of specific legislation dealing with the problem means some have invoked copyright law to request the removal of images.

Copyright of a “selfie” inheres in the taker but the new offence seeks to strengthen the victim’s options by classifying revenge pornography as “photographs or films which show people engaged in sexual activity or depicted in a sexual way or with their genitals exposed, where what is shown would not usually be seen in public”.

The former culture secretary Maria Miller (pictured) told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the law needed to be updated to tackle the problem.

She said: “By putting this in place the government has given young women the opportunity to protect themselves from their lives being blighted.

“When you speak to the victims of these crimes, many say that it feels as if you’ve been virtually raped.

“You can’t underestimate the impact of having an image distributed to many people around the world.”

Barbora Bukovska, of the organisation Article 19, which seeks to defend freedom of expression, argued criminal legislation would not alleviate the problem.

She said: “There is probably no need to introduce a new law as there is already enough legislation prohibiting this conduct.”

In November, a 21-year old man in England became the first to be jailed for posting revenge pornography online under existing law.

He pleaded guilty to harassment without violence at Southern Derbyshire Magistrates Court.

The other legal jurisdictions of the UK are also considering introducing specific offences.

The Department for Justice in Northern Ireland said current laws were able to catch revenge porn offenders but that a specific offence would be considered by ministers.

In October last year the lord advocate, Frank Mulholland QC called for specific legislation to deal with revenge pornography.

Mr Mulholland said: “At the moment we shoehorn this type of offending into existing behaviour.

“It can be treated as a breach of the peace, and that is unsatisfactory. This is a form of domestic abuse and sexual abuse.

“If parliament were to decree it as an offence then it could, for example, carry a prison sentence of say five years maximum.”

He added: “Parliament should consider the evidence and vote on whether it should be considered a criminal offence – and the penalties for it. That would sent out a message to victims and perpetrators that it is not acceptable.”

“The effect is humiliation and it can, in extreme cases, lead to someone considering or actually taking their own life.”