Revenge porn could soon be banned in the UK, says minister

Revenge porn could become illegal in the UK to protect people from vengeful ex-partners posting sexually explicit pictures of their former lovers online, The Huffington Post UK has reported ministers as saying.

Chris Grayling, the justice secretary, said Tuesday that ministers are set to look into amending laws to curb the trend of people publishing explicit pictures of their former partners on the Internet without consent.

See also: Israel’s Knesset bans ‘revenge porn’

Grayling said the government was “very open” to having a “serious discussion” about the issue after the summer recess.
“It is clearly becoming a bigger problem in our society,” he added.

Maria Miller, the former Cabinet minister, agrees.

“We have to send out a very strong message that posting exceptionally explicit images online is completely unacceptable,’ she added. ‘People shouldn’t have to face this degrading treatment.”

See also: Banning ‘Revenge Porn:’ Will Arabs follow Israel’s lead?

There is currently no law to address the issue in the UK but for its part, the Israeli Knesset added an amendment to the existing Sexual Harassment Prevent Bill which bans uploading videos or pictures of a sexual nature to the internet, specifically social media, in January.

In the UK, legal action can only be taken if pictures are deemed a breach of copyright law, harassment or if the pictures are of under-18-year-olds engaged in sexual acts.

According to the Huffington Post UK there are laws preventing “malicious communications,” but this addresses written abuse, not photos.