Texas lawmakers are gearing up to crack down on revenge porn. State Democrats, Senators Sylvia Garcia and Republican Mary Gonzalez, have introduced a new revenge porn bill aimed at bringing revenge porn websites into the ambit of civil penalties; jilted lovers and hackers who find it irresistible to share the non-consensual intimate images online could face a Class A misdemeanor charge.
“If they pass this law, it would make Texas one of the only states with a civil path of action, so victims can sue in civil court and aren’t relying solely on the criminal system. The criminal system works to punish perpetrators and civil system acts to restore the victim, and can empower them,” Carrie Goldberg, a sexual privacy attorney in New York told ThinkProgress.
The civil component of the bill puts a restraining order on the revenge porn websites. It allows victims to add emotional and financial distress to the civil suit.
There are concerns regarding the legislation though. “This statute creates an unconstitutional content-based restriction on speech,” testified Houston First Amendment lawyer Mark Bennett. Vice president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, Bennett warned that while noble in its aim, the ban on content would amount to a violation of free speech. “There are possibly ways to write criminalization statutes that would not be unconstitutional. This is not it,” he added.
Another criticism is that it only considers intimate images leaked by someone intimately related to the victim to be revenge porn. “It takes revenge porn too literally,” Goldberg said adding, “Revenge porn is not something that’s only done by vengeful exes. It can be done by strangers online. Some people do it for fun, to brag, entertainment or no reason at all. When we focus too much on the intent of the offender, we lose site to the harm to the victim”.
Another flaw with this type of legislation, when I share those ‘intimate’ photos of a girlfriend with my buddies who get pissed enough to post them online after she dumps me, how many resources does the state plan to invest tracking the identity of the poster to prove that it wasn’t me who put them into publics purview.
I say you are still responsible. You shouldn’t have even shown them to your buddies. Why would you show your friends? The only reason you showed them is because you are just that much of an entitled douchebag that you think that’s okay, and it’s not. Those are private photos only meant for two people, you and her, and if you are showing them to anyone, buddies, online, whatever, you should be held responsible.
you would still deserve it for sharing it with your friends…
Think about this, if you hurt someone for no reason, cheat on them, lie to them, leave them for someone else, or leave them in general because you got “bored”. Obviously you aren’t happy with just one person, so why not let the whole world see? Revenge porn empowers the person who was hurt, and to be honest, I 100% support it because the person who lied, cheated, or what ever, deserves it for doing that.
I couldn’t agree more!