Australians who refuse to take down intimate photos or videos they share online without permission could soon face hefty fines of up to $105,000 after Labor said it would vote in favour of government laws.
The legislation gives the Office of the eSafety Commissioner the power to fine people for non-consensual sharing of intimate images - often called ‘revenge porn’ - and will almost certainly pass the parliament in coming weeks with bipartisan support.
The will make it a federal civil offence to share, or threaten to share, intimate photos spread by email, text messages, social media or the web, without the subject’s permission.
SBS News has learned Labor plans to vote in favour of the bill, effectively cementing the first federal laws against the practice.
“Labor supports the government’s bill for the limited step that it is, but doesn’t think a civil penalties regime goes far enough,” Labor senator Deborah O’Neill told SBS News.
The bill is already listed for debate in the Senate and could pass parliament in the coming weeks. Labor is seeking one minor amendment: a formal review after three years to check the new regime is working.
Time for tougher action
While the majority of states and territories have recently made revenge porn a crime, the new federal powers would fall under civil law. This means penalties would not lead to a criminal record, but they could be easier to prove in court.
Criminal law usually requires proof “beyond reasonable doubt”, whereas civil trials only require a win on the “balance” of evidence. Labor wants a federal criminal law as well.
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The government said it was time to take tougher action against revenge porn that was often shared to “control, blackmail, coerce, bully or punish a victim”. But the law will cover any sharing of intimate images without permission, regardless of whether the offender intended to cause harm.
The draft legislation says intimate images could include those depicting people “in a state of undress, using the toilet, showering, having a bath” or “engaged in a sexual act … not ordinarily done in public”.
Last year, researchers at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology found one in five Australians had experienced, or been threatened with, the non-consensual sharing of their images. Last month a pornographic website surfaced claiming to show more than 250 private images of women from Canberra.
From complaints to heavy fines
Victims who find their intimate images shared online will be able to submit a complaint to the Commissioner through an .
The agency already tries to get abusive images removed by negotiating with the webpages and social media sites that host the images. But the new law will significantly extend the agency’s powers.
The Commissioner will have the authority to order the deletion of the images by handing the person who posted the image a written take-down notice.
If they fail to obey the “removal order” within 48 hours, the agency would be able to fine individuals up to $105,000, and corporations up to $525,000, in “extremely serious” cases.
Take-down notices can also be issued to social media companies or web hosting services, but the fines can only be enforced within Australia. The Federal Court would be responsible for administering the fines and settling disputes.
Experts warn of limitations
The difficulty of identifying the individuals who are sharing images will make it challenging for the Commission to flex its new powers, an expert in image-based abuse has cautioned.
Often images of ex-partners are uploaded to social media by anonymous accounts, dumped on pornography sites or privately shared with friendship networks.
RMIT socio-legal scholar Dr Nicola Henry, whose research focuses on sexual violence and digital technologies, said the law was a “welcome development” but was unlikely to lead to a high number of fines.
“I think we need to have this in place, but it will only be effective in a number of scenarios,” Dr Henry told SBS News.
The Commissioner can only enforce fines when an image of an Australian resident is shared by another Australian resident. And its ability to pursue the 'revenge porn' website may be limited as most are hosted in the United States, outside Australian jurisdiction.
Once an image is shared online it can also spread very quickly, Dr Henry warns: “The damage may already be done and there’s no way to stop the image spreading once it’s out there.”
She said punishment alone would never solve the problem and called for better early-childhood education.
Much of the current training places blame on the “stupidity and naivety of young girls”, she said, rather than teaching young people to respect the human rights of their current and former sexual partners.
