Vengeance-seeking lovers beware: posting those scandalous pictures of your ex online could land you behind bars. California Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill last week outlawing “revenge porn,” or posting incriminating pictures of someone online with the intention to cause harm. Consequences for uploading “nude pics” of your ex to the web is now considered a misdemeanor and can result in up to six months of jail time or a hefty fine of $1,000. Both of these charges double for second time offenders.
California is the second state to pass a bill criminalizing revenge porn, the first being New Jersey. Revenge porn can be extremely detrimental for its victims. Not only does it cause extreme emotional harm, but it can lead to embarrassment among family and friends. It can also lead to the lack of respect from peers and colleagues and damage the chances of earning a job or a promotion in the future.
Everything has the potential to become public with the Internet,” Casey Meszaros, senior at the University of Illinois, stated. “I think it’s important to protect those who take an image or video with the intentions of keeping it private and have that privacy broken.”
The bill, signed on October 1st, states that an individual can be charged for revenge porn for one of two cases. The first is when the photograph or video of a person indecently exposed was captured in a location of assumed privacy without the knowledge of the recognizable person. The second case concerns photographs or videos taken with consent of the person fully or partially undressed, but with a mutual agreement between parties that the image will remain private. When either type of these pictures surface online, it is considered revenge porn.
Unfortunately, a major loophole was left open: selfies. Individuals who take images of himself or herself and send them to another person are not protected by this bill, regardless of who distributed the photographs.
During an interview with Time, Natalie Webb, director of communications at the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, stated, “It’s a good first step, but it doesn’t really offer meaningful coverage to most victims who have reached out to us. I’ve answered the e-mails of victims who reach out to us and the truth is, this won’t protect many of them.”
Fortunately, the sponsor of the bill, Republican State Senator Anthony Cannella, made it clear that this is the next step. He claimed that the original bill had an additional section protecting victims who photographed themselves, but it was not able to pass.
Several other states, including Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, New York and Pennsylvania are rumored to have anti-revenge porn legislation in the works. Currently, there is no crime against it in 48 states.
Translation: think before you send. Although a current boyfriend or hookup may seem trustworthy enough, no one ever knows how he will respond to a nasty breakup. The best way to avoid being a victim of revenge porn is to not send any pictures that you would not want your grandma or boss to see. No pictures means no chance of them ending up online. If sexting is a must, avoid taking pictures that reveal your face or any other identify features. Another safe, but not completely foolproof option is Snapchat, but beware of the dreaded screenshot.
Because many people feel that choosing to send a scandalous picture to one individual is not synonymous with choosing to post it on the web, a petition to outlaw revenge porn has been started by the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. Visit endrevengeporn.com to sign or for more information.