A bill before the California state assembly would ban nude pictures posted online without permission to seek revenge on a former lover. “The bill would make it a disorderly conduct offense if a person ‘photographs or records by any means the image of another, identifiable person with his or her consent who is in a state of full or partial undress in any area in which the person being photographed or recorded has a reasonable expectation of privacy, and subsequently distributes the image with the intent to cause serious emotional distress. It could be punishable by up to a year in prison if the victim is a minor or the individual commits more than one offense,'” writes James Temple, San Francisco Chronicle, August 27, 2013.
A Minnesota man admitted to posting nude photos online of a former girl friend and awaits sentencing for “gross misdemeanor criminal defamation.” (St. Paul Pioneer Press, August 28, 2013, by Emily Gurnon)
The American Civil Liberties Union opposes laws limiting revenge porn on the grounds that the laws could restrict other forms of legitimate speech. But law professor Danielle Keats Citron, CNN, August 29, 2013, says the unauthorized publication of naked images should be criminalized since it ruins lives by causing debilitating emotional distress, job firings and unemployment. “Nonconsensual pornography lacks First Amendment value as a historical matter, and could be understood as categorically unprotected as obscenity,” writes Citron.
If enacted, the California law could provide a model for other states to deal with the problem. But Jeff Hermes, of Harvard’s Digital Media Law Project cautions that it is difficult to get the right balance between the First Amendment and privacy rights. He says the law is “responding to a significant concern, and I don’t want to downplay that. It is a law in a field which is already heavily regulated — privacy — and where there are court remedies. But the question is whether the criminal penalties are necessary to achieve the aims already provided by existing law.” (NBC News, September 3, 2013, by Suzanne Choney)