Petition Aims:

• Remove ‘intention to cause distress’ requirement in the law so that the act of sharing sexual images and videos without consent is a criminal offence, regardless of the perpetrators motives.
• Ensure it becomes a criminal offence to threaten the disclosure of sexual images and videos without consent

Regardless of the perpetrators intentions, make image based sexual abuse illegal.

On the 13th April 2015 a law was passed in England and Wales that ensured it was a criminal offence to disclose private sexual images and videos of individuals without consent, but only when the perpetrator intended to cause distress. 

Therefore, the law dictates that if an offender can prove that they didn't intend to cause distress, they are not a criminal in the eyes of the law. However, the intent is not always to cause distress.

In many cases of image-based sexual abuse images are shared for many reasons other than revenge or to cause distress. For example, it is not a criminal offence to share sexual images and/or videos without consent for:

• Financial gain
• Sexual gratification
• For ‘fun’ or a ‘laugh’
• For sexual images in return
• In some cases, there may not even appear to be a reason

Additionally, removing the ‘intention to cause distress’ requirement from this law will ensure that it is a criminal offence to share sexual images and/or videos without consent from hacked or stolen computers and phones. 

It is time to give power back to the survivors of image-based sexual abuse.