Hundreds of people have been investigated by police under new the new ‘Revenge Porn’ law, according to research from a think tank. The findings, sourced using Freedom of Information requests, cover data and notes from 18 police forces in the UK and reveal 175 incidents since the new law came into force in April 2015.
Section 33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 covers “disclosing private sexual photographs and films with intent to cause distress,” and the commencement date for this specific offence was 13th April 2015 when it was introduced into law.
Of the Police forces which responded to the requests for information, Greater Manchester reported the highest number of incidents at 31. This was followed by Northamptonshire which cited 21 investigations with only one person charged.
Parliament Street also analysed data around the type of technology platform was used. Of the investigations which provided data around the platform the incident occurred on, 21 cited Facebook, three cited SnapChat and two WhatsApp.
Comment
Nick Viney, EMEA VP at Intel Security said: “The findings revealed in Parliament Street’s report are very upsetting and sadly, just the tip of the iceberg. Recent research from Intel Security found that over half of Brits (55pc) have intimate content stored on their phones, and 96 per cent say they trust their partners not to post this explicit content online. Yet, the reality is that ex-partners are doing this much too often. With many of these incidents taking place over social media apps, the importance of parents having open, ongoing conversations to ensure they keep abreast of the latest social networks, online trends and security measures is key. Nearly two-fifths (37pc) of children admit to using Snapchat every day and almost one in ten (9pc) of parents admit to having set up a Snapchat account for their child – worrying statistics for parents who haven’t taken security precautions into account.
“Parents should be fully armed with not only the right safety technologies, but also the knowledge needed to provide parental guidance both on and offline. It’s also imperative that if parents are setting up online profiles for their children, they feel empowered to be able to set the right security and privacy settings for their family across all devices.”
Police notes
The police notes within some of the documentation released reveals the suffering of (anonymous) victims and indeed cruelty of offenders.
In Humberside, one report read: “Victim sends nude photos of herself to her boyfriend. They split up due to his violence and the victim doesn’t hear from him for two years. The victim is then informed by her friend that the male has posted the nude pictures on a social media website that is open for anyone to view.”
In Suffolk, a girl was threatened by text message, according to Police notes: “Sent victim (22 years old) a naked picture of the victim via text message, and threatened to post it on social media.”
Another example of text sharing was apparent in Lancashire: “Aggrieved had sent a digital naked picture of themself to their then partner by mobile telephone and has now been informed by third party that this image has been posted on a bogus account on a social media site.
Aggrieved complained to their ex-partner and is now informed by third parties that bogus account has now been closed and
image is no longer available to view on social media.”
Whilst Gwent Police reported detail of one offence via SnapChat: “A video of a sex act involving a 23 year old female victim was placed on snapchat by a 26 year old male offender.”
