Julia welcomes more calls for #NoMoreNaming
The report from the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, ‘Sexual harassment of women and girls in public places’, reinforces our campaign for there to be a change in the law on image-based sexual abuse, also known as revenge porn.
It calls for there to be anonymity for victims by making the crime a sexual offence rather than a communications offence, as at present:
‘The Government should introduce a new law on image-based sexual abuse which criminalises all non-consensual creation and distribution of intimate sexual images, including altered images, and threats to do so. This should be a sexual offence based on the victim’s lack of consent and not on perpetrator motivation, and include an automatic right to life-long anonymity for the complainant, as with other sexual offences.’
Julia Mulligan, elected Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire, commented:
“I welcome this report which agrees with our #NoMoreNaming campaign that there should be anonymity for victims of revenge porn. To do this, we need to reclassify image based sexual abuse as a sex crime rather than a communications crime and that needs to happen now.
“While the conclusions of the Committee are another step in the right direction, they are just words and it is now time for action. Ministers need to step up, agree to change the law and protect victims so they no longer have to suffer the indignity of being named on top of having their most intimate moments shared online.”