Emily McFadden examines the growing impact of image-based sexual abuse & the importance of securing anonymity for its victims
- The law has been slow to recognise the scale of the problem of revenge porn and put in place proper legislation to deal with it. However, positive steps have been taken recently with the Online Safety Bill and an announcement that victims will have anonymity in revenge porn cases.
Revenge porn is rarely out of the headlines—in December last year, reality TV contestant Stephen Bear was found guilty of voyeurism and two counts of disclosing private, sexual photographs and films. In June 2022, Rob Kardashian and Blac Chyna reached a settlement in their revenge porn case as the trial began.
However, revenge porn isn’t something that just affects the famous. According to Refuge’s ‘The Naked Threat’ report in July 2020, one in 14 adults in England and Wales have been threatened with sharing an intimate image. This increases to one in seven young women aged between 18 and 34 having experienced threats to share intimate images. The overwhelming majority
