Revenge porn offenders will face a six month custodial sentence, regardless of whether lawyers can prove their intent to cause distress to their victims. Until now, predators sharing intimate photos and videos of their former partners faced no punishment if there was no proof of an intention to cause harm.
But in plans announced on Tuesday, anyone found guilty of sharing images without consent will be given a maximum penalty of six months imprisonment. Should intent to humiliate, or gain sexual gratification is found - the new rules could see abusers also put on the sex offenders' register, on top of a two-year jail punishment already in place.
And for the first time, sharing of 'deepfake' intimate images - which are explicit images or videos which have been digitally edited to impose people's faces - will also be criminalised with up to two years in jail. The Mirror reports that the use of these has been increasing in recent years, with a now-defunct website which virtually stripped women naked seeing 38million hits across the first eight months of 2021.
