According to the Law Commission, a “patchwork” of criminal offenses has not kept up with technology and is failing to protect victims while perpetrators avoid prosecution.
The sharing of “down blouse” images and nude photos or videos without consent should be made a crime, according to the Law Commission.
The recommendations, it said, would bring laws on intimate image abuse into the smartphone era, noting that a “patchwork” of criminal offenses has not kept pace with technology and is failing to protect victims while perpetrators evade justice.
The commission proposes creating a base offense with a maximum penalty of six months in prison for intentionally taking or sharing a sexual, nude, or intimate photo or video without consent.
This would apply regardless of the perpetrator’s motivation because the act is “enough wrongful and harmful to warrant criminalization.”
The commission also proposes tougher prison sentences of two to three years for additional offenses such as taking or sharing the image for sexual gratification, causing humiliation, alarm, distress, or threatening the victim.
According to the organization, this “graded” approach is not intended to reflect the victim’s harm, but rather the higher level of culpability when the perpetrator acts with specific intent.
Installing equipment such as a hidden camera in an Airbnb property or toilet to photograph or film someone without their permission would also be illegal, with maximum penalties by the graded proposals.
The new offenses would apply to victims and perpetrators of all ages and would cover nude, partially nude, sexual act, or toileting images.
On top of existing criminal offenses such as upskirting and voyeurism, these include images taken down a woman’s top, known as downblouse, pornographic deep fakes, and images where someone’s clothes have been digitally removed, making them appear nude.
However, it would not apply to situations in which the circumstances and nature of the conduct “are not morally wrongful or harmful,” such as a proud family member posting a nude or partially nude photo of a newborn baby on social media.
Victims have lifetime anonymity.
All victims of the new offenses would be eligible for lifetime anonymity and special treatment in the event of a trial, such as the ability to testify behind a screen or provide pre-recorded evidence.
Professor Penney Lewis, the criminal law commissioner, stated: “Current laws prohibiting the taking or sharing of sexual or nude images of another person without their consent are inconsistent, based on a narrow set of motivations, and fail to cover disturbing and abusive new behaviors born in the smartphone era.
“Our new government reforms will broaden the scope of the criminal law to ensure that no perpetrators of these deeply damaging acts escape prosecution and that victims are adequately protected.”
Emily Hunt, a campaigner and independent adviser to the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), said the anonymity reforms are “vital” because they will increase victim protection and encourage more people to come forward and report crimes.
According to a government spokesman: “Since we outlawed revenge porn,’ nearly 1,000 abusers have been convicted.
“With the Online Safety Bill, we will compel internet companies to better protect people from a variety of image-based abuse, including deep fakes.
“However, we requested that the Commission investigate whether the law could be strengthened further to keep the public safer.
“We will consider its recommendations carefully and respond in due course”.
