Elle Madelyn

Australia needs to criminalise ‘image-based sexual assault’. This includes:

• revenge porn – the non-consensual sharing of intimate images;
• morphed porn – the non-consensual doctoring of ordinary images into pornographic material; and
• parasite porn – the non-consensual sharing of ordinary images onto pornographic websites.

Online sexual exploitation can happen to anyone but it primarily affects women. It is used as a tool by perpetrators to harm, intimidate, control, threaten, misrepresent or sexually objectify their victims. Technology-facilitated abuse can cause significant harm to victims including emotional distress, violation, shame, humiliation, damage to their reputation and employability and disruption to their employment or education. Victims can fear for their safety and have suicidal thoughts and/or attempt suicide.

A national inquiry on ‘revenge porn’ has already taken place, and in early 2016 the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee recommended in a report that the Commonwealth Government and the states/territories make the ‘non-consensual sharing of intimate images’…