Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
SHARING INTIMATE IMAGES without consent and without a requirement that the person intended to cause harm to the victim could result in a fine of €5,000 and 12 months in prison under proposals being brought to Cabinet this week.
It is understood Minister for Justice Helen McEntee is to seek Cabinet approval tomorrow for new offences to deal with the non-consensual distribution of intimate images.
The move comes only a couple of days after the gardaí confirmed they are investigating the uploading of images and videos of Irish women and girls, without their consent, to a number of online forums.
It is understood that some of the images and footage are of minors.
The Victims Alliance, an advocacy group, said tens of thousands of images have been shared on various online platforms.
Last week, the minister said in the Dáil that anyone sharing intimate images of a person without their consent “will face serious criminal sanctions”.
Advertisement
Under the minister’s proposals, the first offence will deal with the distribution or publication of intimate images without consent and with intent to cause harm.
It is intended to carry a maximum penalty of an unlimited fine and/or seven years imprisonment.
The second offence will deal with the taking, distribution or publication of intimate images without consent without a requirement that the person intended to cause harm to the victim of the offence.
It is intended that this offence will carry a maximum penalty of a €5,000 fine and/or 12 months imprisonment.
It is understood that the fact that the person may have consented to the taking of an image will be irrelevant if it is subsequently published or distributed without their consent.
The Bill does not specify the types of technology that may be used to commit the offences, and is intentionally neutral to cover all forms of online and offline communications that cause harm to a victim.
It will also be an aggravating factor for the purposes of sentencing if the perpetrator of the offence is or was in an intimate relationship with the victim of the offence.
The new measures will be contained in amendments to the Harassment, Harmful Communications and other Related Offences Bill.
Related Reads
Opinion: Let's call 'revenge porn' what it really is - sexual abuse
Gardaí looking into allegations that large number of images of women were shared online without their consent
An update on the harassment legislation will also broaden the scope of the offence of harassment to cover consistent communications to or about a person, not just indecent images, and increasing the penalty from seven to ten years to reflect the harm that can be caused by most serious forms of harassment.
The maximum penalty will be increased from seven years to 10 years to reflect the harm caused by the most serious forms of harassment.
McEntee is believed to have worked closely with Brendan Howlin of the Labour Party, who tabled the Bill in the last Dáil.
The government will seek to enact the Bill as a priority, with the minister stating that she welcomes the cross party support for the Bill, which she wants to see “enacted as soon as possible”.
The Bill is scheduled for committee stage in the Dail on 1 December.
Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone...
A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article.
Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
35 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
@Jurga Moylan: Cop on to yourself. “Up to 7” will probably mean about 1 or 2, if it isn’t suspended, in practice.
Instead of making this into a ‘what about this other horrible crime that isn’t punished harshly enough’ issue, how about we rejoice that this will FINALLY be illegal.
It isn’t just “posting a picture”. It ruins lives. Have a bit of perspective.
@Jurga Moylan: if someone put a naked picture of you on the internet, I’d be guessing you would be happy for a 7 year prison sentence for the person who did it.
@Jurga Moylan: the key word here is could. Ultimately it will be a slap on the wrist. Minimum sentencing is required to tale the ridiculous inconsistency from judges sentencing.
@Jurga Moylan: not just sharing a picture though is it, it’s sharing an intimate picture which will forever be on the Internet and a quick name search could lead anyone to see it at any time of your life
@James Fox: Not for a second will I or other people move on from the corruption of this government. If all your response consists of is a yawn .. Than that is all that is wrong with this country.
It happened last week, in Italy: a girl, primary school teacher, send intimate images of herself to her boyfriend.
They broke up after a while. Boyfriend send those pics to his football buddies, for a laugh. One of the lads showed pic to his wife. Wife recognize her as teacher of the kids. Went to the principal, and the principal sacked the teacher.
Eventually she decides to report everything to the police.
- boyfriend sentenced to 5 yrs, according to the recent law called: “porn revenge”
- boyfriend’s friend got lighter sentence for shoving and circulating the pic
- principal got sentenced for unlawful dismissal
- teacher got money as repair damage, but… will be hard to get her life back
Never, EVER, send intimate pics to anyone. Once out there you lose control and ANYTHING can happen
It’s a disgusting and degrading thing to do.
People have committed suicide over things like this.
Of course the perpetrators of a thing lime this should face a serious custodial sentence.
I’ll probably get attacked for this but I have to say I think this is total insanity, possibly up to 7 years.
An average life sentence in Ireland ranges ~17 to 22 years. ~98% are men.
Is posting such pictures of someone without consent ethnically and morally repugnant act, absolutely it is.
However in my opinion this type of toxic idealogue law will be open to horrendous abuse and will undoubtedly ruin the lives of a number of innocent people who for a statistical fact will be wrongly convicted.
@Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: Yes, which is why it is vital you don’t introduce these idealogue laws with prison sentences that are completely open to serious abuse.
As a person accused by a potentially irate former partner after a toxic break up how do you prove verbal consent or perhaps a person simply genuinely misinterpreted a non verbal gesture.
It becomes one persons word versus another.
Its nothing like a burglary/shoplifting where you can have cctv etc an eye witness, DNA, fingerprints etc which all help ensure totally innocent people are not convicted and the guilty people are.
In my opinion it’s a very dangerous path trying to implement such toxic idealogue laws, you leave the door wide open for serious abuse to what is just as morally wrong which is “revenge accusers”
@Cian – Wash your: In case my point is lost as it was with the other person, because it will be open to such abuse the percentage won’t be as low as it is with other crimes as mentioned above (shoplifting or burglary).
It may be many times higher and in fact in my opinion would uniquely be specifically open to abuse by also immoral “revenge accuses” to hurt and convict innocent people.
@Supes Kz: it’s just going to continue to fill our prisons full of even more poor people. We have adopted the English common law, it’s designed in such a way it punishes poor people a d rich people get away or off with little or no sentences. Fact
@Supes Kz: So what’s your solution then? How would you feel of someone shared a naked photo of you without your consent and your work colleagues came across it? Would you want justice? I know I would..
Let’s pretend John plays for Kerry and he shares their All Ireland tactics with his brother Patrick in advance of the game. He trusts his brother absolutely. Some crucial, private information (I’m making this up obviously).
Patrick gets thick at John and shares the tactics with the other team in the final in advance.
Do you really think Patrick is completely guilt free in that situation?
@thesaltyurchin: Exactly. Never, EVER send intimate picture to anyone. Once out there we lose control. Anything can happen, from being stolen, sent by mistake or willingly to cause harm. We’ve a gun in our hands, before we realize it.
@thesaltyurchin: It’s 2020, people send nudes to each other, that’s not going to change. It’s better to make abuse like this an offence rather than victim blame.
In Spain a young mother of two killed herself, her ex shared time ago, someone kept and shared for second time intimate photos in the WhatsApp group of work. That was the welcome back after the maternity leave, 3 months in Spain. Most of the male co-workers found it was funny to go to her work station, have check on her and made a denigrating comment …. all of them knew her, knew she was nursing a young baby and the lack of sleep; they knew the ex and her knew partner …. very sad, her ex is also the father of her first child, he was devastated because he made a mistake when they brook up and he paid for it … and then years after someone has kept those photos and decided to share in work forums and sexualised a young mum of a few months old baby
Maybe when the employers face most of their staff going to prison at the same time, they decided to take action quicker
Three men found guilty of murder of Tristan Sherry in Dublin Christmas Eve restaurant attack
1 hr ago
12.5k
Evening Wrap
The 5 at 5: Monday
6 mins ago
1
Tráth na gCeist
Quiz: Can you finish these well-known Irish phrases?
19 hrs ago
40.5k
28
Your Cookies. Your Choice.
Cookies help provide our news service while also enabling the advertising needed to fund this work.
We categorise cookies as Necessary, Performance (used to analyse the site performance) and Targeting (used to target advertising which helps us keep this service free).
We and our 148 partners store and access personal data, like browsing data or unique identifiers, on your device. Selecting Accept All enables tracking technologies to support the purposes shown under we and our partners process data to provide. If trackers are disabled, some content and ads you see may not be as relevant to you. You can resurface this menu to change your choices or withdraw consent at any time by clicking the Cookie Preferences link on the bottom of the webpage .Your choices will have effect within our Website. For more details, refer to our Privacy Policy.
We and our vendors process data for the following purposes:
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
Cookies Preference Centre
We process your data to deliver content or advertisements and measure the delivery of such content or advertisements to extract insights about our website. We share this information with our partners on the basis of consent. You may exercise your right to consent, based on a specific purpose below or at a partner level in the link under each purpose. Some vendors may process your data based on their legitimate interests, which does not require your consent. You cannot object to tracking technologies placed to ensure security, prevent fraud, fix errors, or deliver and present advertising and content, and precise geolocation data and active scanning of device characteristics for identification may be used to support this purpose. This exception does not apply to targeted advertising. These choices will be signaled to our vendors participating in the Transparency and Consent Framework.
Manage Consent Preferences
Necessary Cookies
Always Active
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Store and/or access information on a device 102 partners can use this purpose
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development 133 partners can use this purpose
Use limited data to select advertising 103 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Create profiles for personalised advertising 75 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Use profiles to select personalised advertising 74 partners can use this purpose
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Create profiles to personalise content 36 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Use profiles to select personalised content 32 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Measure advertising performance 124 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Measure content performance 59 partners can use this purpose
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Understand audiences through statistics or combinations of data from different sources 72 partners can use this purpose
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Develop and improve services 79 partners can use this purpose
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Use limited data to select content 37 partners can use this purpose
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
Use precise geolocation data 42 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Actively scan device characteristics for identification 24 partners can use this special feature
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Ensure security, prevent and detect fraud, and fix errors 82 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Deliver and present advertising and content 92 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Match and combine data from other data sources 65 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Link different devices 48 partners can use this feature
Always Active
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Identify devices based on information transmitted automatically 81 partners can use this feature
Always Active
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
Save and communicate privacy choices 60 partners can use this special purpose
Always Active
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say