At the steps of City Hall yesterday, City Council members Laurie Cumbo (Fort Greene, Clinton Hill, Prospect Heights), Rory Lancman (Queens) and Dan Garodnick (Manhattan) united to push for the criminalization of “revenge porn”- a form of domestic violence in which a person shares nude pictures online of their partner in the hope of doing emotional damage to the victim.
New York state currently does not have a law against this heinous conduct but through a new legislation that was initially introduced back in 2014, that will hopefully change. If the bill passes, New York will only be the 35th state to have laws against revenge porn.
“We are from this point forward going to push the council to have a hearing on this legislation and ultimately pass the bill so that we can provide some measure of protection to our New Yorkers that find themselves victims of this disgusting and horrible crime, ” said Lancman, who co-sponsored the measure in the city council.
If the bill passes, revenge porn will be considered a Class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail, and a $1,000 fine. This will include any images of the potential victim without their consent is shared through text messages, social media or through email with the intent of causing harm.
The lawmakers noted that this is a 21st Century issue that in the past few years has gained traction due to increased use of the internet and social media. Dedicated revenge porn sites have sprung up allowing perpetrators to violate their current or past partners privacy by exposing them intimately to the world through online platforms.
The lawmakers pointed out the poinancy of the issue as this is National Domestic Violence Awareness Month. In most cases of revenge porn, the perpetrator is male, while the victim is female. In fact, 90 percent of women are victims of revenge porn, the lawmakers said.
“This direct violation of privacy has the same disastrous effect on one’s personal life and livelihood [as physical and emotional abuse],” said Cumbo, Chair of the Women’s Issues Committee. “This legislation is a step in the right direction and making sure that no one is publicly humiliated on the internet or otherwise because our lives are too valuable.
Victims of revenge porn can suffer from a range of psychological and emotional distress, similar to traditional form of domestic abuse, such as public humiliation and shame, potentially loss of employment, harassment, online bullying, cyber stalking and as well as contemplating suicide, advocates for the bill said at the press conference.
“It is the kind of outrageous conduct that so damages people, their reputation, their ability to function in the world, that it needs to be punished by a criminal sanction,” added Lancman.
Queens Assemblyman Ed Braunstein introduced a bill to the New York State Assembly to criminalize revenge porn in 2014, but it has languished in Albany due to lack of support, according to DNAInfo.
According to New York State law, secretly recording sexually explicit images or videos is illegal, but not if the person willingly sends images to a partner that are later posted online.
