Imagine you send a saucy selfie to your partner. What’s the big deal? They’ve seen it all before; it’s all part of an intimate relationship that you share; and it’s only for their eyes – maybe to bring a cheeky smile to their face as they sit through a boring work meeting.
Imagine you break up – and it’s a pretty bitter end – and your former partner posts that selfie on social media; emails it to your employer; perhaps even shows your mum… all because they’re hurt and angry and want you to feel the same.
Now imagine that you contact the social media platform; you contact the police… and being told that there’s little or nothing that can be done.
The damage is done – there’s no coming back from that. The humiliation of having your employer, friends and strangers all seeing the most intimate part of you is something that most people will find hard to forget in a hurry. You can’t unsee what you’ve seen.
Adding salt to the wound is the patchwork of law that exists around the country to provide protection for the victim and appropriate punishment or deterrent for the offender.
Welcome to the world of revenge porn.
Nothing will make up for the humiliation, harassment or violation of having the most intimate images of you made public or shown to people who have no right to see them.
However, laws are created to make things right (or as right as they can be). Laws are created to protect people from harm. Laws are created to be a deterrent for bad behaviour.
This week in the Assembly, Shadow Attorney-General Jeremy Hanson’s bill to make illegal the sharing of intimate images without consent was debated. With the support of the government and the cross-bench, the bill passed and is now law in the ACT.
It is now an offence in the ACT to distribute or threaten to distribute intimate images without consent and punishable with jail time. This law is not to trap teenage lovers expressing their sexuality or having a bit of fun – the law has different provisions for those under the age of consent. It is, however, an important law that reflects society’s views that no one should be violated in this way.
I am proud to be a member of the party that took leadership on this issue, and it’s moments like these that remind of why I am here.
The government says that it has been concerned about this growing phenomenon for some time. However, despite all the additional resources and expertise at their disposal, it took the real action (and not just the talk) of the Shadow Attorney-General, Jeremy Hanson, and the Canberra Liberals team to get it done.
On this important issue, it is a case where the ‘Shadow’ loomed larger than life.
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