Shropshire Star

Star comment: Websites must also take blame over revenge porn

Where social media and the internet goes, the law lags a few steps behind, gamely trying to catch up and police all the nastiness which this information and communications revolution has unleashed.

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Only a little over a year ago what we now identify as revenge porn was not illegal. Since a law was introduced in April of last year,

. One of them was only 14. The vast majority of these people who reported being on the receiving end were women.

The motivation of those who commit the crime of revenge porn is not hard to see. They are getting their own back on a partner by causing them huge embarrassment and distress. To have the most private and intimate moments shared with all and sundry online is humiliating, amounting to a sort of visual rape, as there has been no consent for it to happen, and yet it is forced upon the victim. The culprits, meanwhile, snigger with their leering friends.

The figures are going to be only the tip of the iceberg because there are going to be many victims who fear that reporting the crime will only make things worse, and draw attention to something they want nothing more than for it to go away.

There are also indications that getting a successful prosecution is not that easy. In West Mercia, only seven suspects have been charged, and two people have been cautioned. Perhaps the bar is high. Or perhaps the "it wasn't me" defence is difficult to overcome when a number of people might have had access to the same device.

It is important that victims are encouraged to come forward, because it is not right for them to be condemned to misery and fear of what a former partner might do next to hurt them. And there is another party to the problem who should not be allowed to pretend it is nothing to do with them. It is the website providers, who need to take responsibility for how these sites are being used.

There are those who have an ideological commitment to the internet being a free-for-all, the people's forum, unrestricted by officialdom. The trouble with that is, when there are no rules, there are no limits to what some of the nastiest and most embittered people in society will do to hurt others.

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