When Love Goes Wrong !

"  Revenge Porn  " is a weapon of the electronic age.   The technology of mobile phones, computers, printers delivered a degree of privacy that was impossible in the days of film cameras. Pictures no longer needed to pass through the hands of a third party for processing and printing.  We entered a more permissive age where nudity and sex became a more open part of relationships.

The problem is that when relationships break down they often end on a sour note. Sometimes this parting is little short of open warfare and that is where intimate moments recorded for posterity can be used to wreak revenge.  What was designed for the eyes of a lover can flash across the Internet with the intention of causing extreme embarrassment.

Victims sometimes have success in having the offending pictures taken down by the social media through which they are showing, but by then it is too late.  The damage has been done.  There has been pressure to resolve this problem by the passage of legislation, but both the states and the Commonwealth are proceeding with caution.   It would be very easy to create a law that had unexpected consequences.

The New South Wales attorney general suggests that this would be better treated as an invasion of privacy issue rather than a matter of criminal law.   Treating is as " Tort  " would allow the victim to sue for damages in a civil court.  It may be that the expectation of a severe financial penalty may be more effective than the unlikely imposition of a prison term for an offence of that nature.

The Commonwealth and States have been asked to submit their views and that enquiry closed on October 30.  It was hoped that it could reach common ground and that uniform legislation would apply across Australia.   One of the issues raised by both the NSW Law Society and Legal Aid - was how age restrictions would apply.

That is indeed a tricky conundrum.   What would be quite reasonable when applied to adults would encounter difficulties in law where juveniles are the culprits.  Those under the age of eighteen are subjected to the administration of the juvenile court and that would differentiate if the offender or the victim was between the ages of sixteen and eighteen.

To further complicate the issue,  a curious protocol known as "Sexting " is common between kids ranging in age from primary to high school.   Couples having a "relationship " are under pressure to exchange nude photographs of each other and it is often such immaturity that results in these images appearing on the Internet when that relationships ends in acrimony.

It also raises the issue of the age of consent.   Content depicting actual sex by those under the age of consent would certainly result in prosecution of the offender.   There is a tendency for some applicants to this enquiry to suggest that any legislation be strictly reserved to apply only to adult offenders.

The law framers will also wrestle with defining what constitutes an "offensive image ".   It could become unlawful to post any sort of picture of a person without their consent to uphold the privacy laws.   Or the legislators may simply consign this entire subject to gather dust in the "too hard " basket  !