14 DAY TRIAL // If you were planning on taking revenge on your ex by revealing some compromising pictures or videos of them online, you might want to think twice before doing it.
A new law came into effect yesterday, clearly stating that sharing “private, sexual images of someone without consent and with the intent to cause distress” is now considered a crime and it will be punished as such, The Telegraph reports.
Following the multiple cases of people who admitted having undergone this kind of abuse, it was only natural for such a decision to be made, especially since most of the people involved in these cases were minors.
The youngest boy to be charged with this type of offense was only 14, and it was reported that he tried to sell naked pictures of his ex-girlfriend who was 15 at the time. She admitted to having sent him intimate pictures of herself, but that she had not thought anything wrong of it.
Authorities are expecting less cases of the sort
Even if the law has just been implemented, this does not mean that people have not been convicted for the offense before. There have been several cases of people who have been sentenced for this kind of crime.
The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 also states that not only sending explicit content can get you in jail but also any type of message sent with the “intention of causing distress or anxiety.”
Even if the images are shared online, on a social media platform, or sent directly to a third party, the charges are the same and the person who distributes them could receive a 2-year sentence.
However, this new law is not meant to encourage the sending of explicit photos of oneself because it is very likely that they will fall into the wrong hands. This is why authorities advise people to refrain from sending racy pictures or videos of themselves to anyone.
Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, declared for The Telegraph that “Crime has fallen, serious offenders are going to prison for longer and now we have changed the law to deliver tougher and swifter justice for victims and the public.”
They hope that the law will raise awareness about this issue and that it will prevent bitter exes from taking revenge using this thoughtless method.