Make taking pictures down a woman's top a crime, say law advisers

Taking pictures down a woman’s top and sexualised photoshopping should be criminalised under legislation that tackles intimate images being taken or shared without consent, official advisers on law reform have said.

The Law Commission in England and Wales is putting forward proposals to expand the type of behaviours covered by the existing criminal laws that cover upskirting – that is, taking a picture under another person’s clothing without their knowledge – arguing that there is inconsistency in the type of images covered.

“Downblousing” and deepfake pornography – in which existing images and videos of a person are manipulated to depict sexual acts they have not carried out – are among the behaviours listed for criminalisation.

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Other forms of intimate abuse covered by the proposals include recording or streaming rapes or sexual assaults and “sextortion” – threatening to share an intimate image to extort money or more images.

The law reform body has suggested automatic anonymity be granted for all victims of intimate image abuse, also known as revenge porn.

Gina Martin, the campaigner whose efforts led to the criminalisation of upskirting, said: “During my time campaigning and lobbying for upskirting to be criminalised, I spent a significant amount of time with victims of intimate image abuse. Like me, they felt that their experience either wasn’t understood, captured adequately in law or taken as seriously as it should be by the authorities. This shows a huge gap in our efforts to protect people.”

The commission suggests a new graded framework, which includes a base offence of taking or sharing an intimate image without consent, doing so with the intention to humiliate the victim, doing so for sexual gratification, or causing the victim to fear the image will be shared.

Prof Penney Lewis, criminal law commissioner at the commission, said: “For victims, having their intimate images taken or shared without consent can be an incredibly damaging and humiliating experience. However, the law does not adequately protect victims from this behaviour and reform is clearly needed. Our proposals would reform the existing law and ensure that victims are given the protection they need.”

The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners’ victims co-lead Julia Mulligan welcomed the recommendation to extend anonymity to all victims of intimate image abuse, saying it was “absolutely the right one”.

“Changing the law will mean the system no longer causes pain and distress to those who it should be protecting. It will support victims, not stigmatise them, is long overdue and now needs to happen as soon as possible,” she said.

Zara McDermott, a contestant on the reality show Love Island, recently spoke out about her experience as a victim of revenge porn as she campaigned for law reform. McDermott became victim of revenge porn at the age of 21 while she was a contestant on the ITV2 series.

“I came out [of the show] to find that an ex of mine had shared a lot of imagery of me while I was in the show, so was completely unaware,” she told reporters. “I was bombarded with all these images of myself and it was hard, one of the hardest things I’ve ever gone through in my life.”

The Law Commission will continue to hear from stakeholders until 27 May, after which it will develop final recommendations.

A Government spokesperson said: “No one should have to suffer the distress of these cruel acts which is why we have already introduced new laws on ‘revenge porn’ and ‘upskirting’.

“We will carefully consider these proposals to make sure our laws keep pace with emerging crimes.”