All around the world, countries are fighting to make revenge porn illegal – and for bloody good reason. Posting a video of your ex in “compromising” positions online without permission is a scumbag thing to do. However, it isn’t yet illegal in Northern Ireland.
The new law has rolled out across England and Wales, meaning that posting revenge porn is now a criminal offence. Although it hasn’t yet come into effect in Northern Ireland, campaigners are working hard to make sure it does.
What is revenge porn?
People seem to be a little bit confused about what revenge porn is. To clear things up, revenge porn covers any images or videos of a sexual nature (whether just lingerie shots or otherwise) that are shared without their permission in order to try and “get back at” or hurt someone.
While this is very simple, it seems that some people are still confused about what exactly revenge porn means. I have seen someone saying “well, I didn’t post it on a porn website. Is it still revenge porn?”
Yes. No matter where you post it, whether that is on a porn site or on social media, it is still counted as revenge porn. Hell, even if you send it in a private message on Facebook or in a text it counts as revenge porn because you are sharing it. That is the key word there.
So basically, if you have a raunchy video of your ex-girlfriend sucking your dick before pumping your load out on her tits, there is only one thing you should do with it: delete it.
Why share it?
Okay, so you might be tempted to share your private porn with your friends, work colleagues, or even the world for many reasons.
You might just want to go “hey, look at this hot woman I’m fucking and what she does to my dick!” and have people reply back with “you are so lucky. That’s hot!” but, if you don’t have their permission, you shouldn’t be sharing it.
However, the main reason it is shared is to get back at a person. Usually it happens after a break-up, with one partner going “you know what, I’m going to have my revenge” and posting the private moments anywhere they can to embarrass and shame someone. For Folmai Prehaye, it was difficult to overcome: “I was mortified and very angry. He decided to hurt me and publicly shame me by sharing those photos. And he also put them on porn sites.”
The moral of the story here? Don’t share it. Sure, you might want to keep it to fap over later, but posting it online is a dick move.
More people are needed
Folami is fully supportive of the change to the law to make revenge porn a specific crime and is overjoyed that the changes have now been made in England and Wales. However, she fears there are not enough people fighting for these changes in Northern Ireland.
Wayne Denner is a man who speaks in schools about online safety and protecting your reputation. He says that he “would like a change in the law” because “there needs to be protection for victims and there needs to be repercussions for offenders.”
At the moment there is little that can be done about revenge porn, and when they can be punished for it, the punishment does not fit the crime.
Julie Tierney, a family lawyer in Belfast, said that she has seen an increasing number of cases featuring revenge porn. She believes that “a change in the law in Northern Ireland would help” as “any sort of protection for victims being heightened in any shape or form would definitely be welcomed.”
Making progress
The Department of Justice have said that they are currently considering making revenge porn an offence, however at the moment they believe that, if it does come into effect, it will not be any time soon.
That’s a little worrying, especially when England, Wales, and many states in America have criminalised it.
Scotland is also currently working towards making it a crime, so hopefully both Northern Ireland and Scotland will soon make the posting of this horrid content illegal.
Until then, however, people are going to continue to suffer, as Polly Neate from Women’s Aid points out that “using existing laws basically means a failure to recognise the unique issues that surround revenge porn, so it does need its own laws and we would like to see Northern Ireland take action on this as soon as possible.”
No more revenge porn!
Hopefully in the future we will see revenge porn made illegal. It is horrible when it happens to you, as I found out when a friend of mine told me what her ex did. This ex (while they were still together was still dating him) decided to show off their video to his friends. Needless to say, they weren’t together very long. In fact, it was just after she had deleted the video from his phone that they broke up!
There is one big way to protect yourself from being the victim of revenge porn, and that is to not shoot or create any in the first place. It might seem to be extreme, but by not creating it in the first place it cannot be used against you.
If you do have some porn between you and you break up, make sure it is deleted. You don’t want it to surface two years later when you’re going for that big promotion!
What do you think about revenge porn? Do you support the campaign to have it made illegal in Northern Ireland, or have you got some other ideas about what they can do to prevent it? You can let us know by visiting the Escort Ireland forum, or by leaving a comment in the comment box below.
Since then she has gained a fine reputation with her blogs on sex advice, sexual health and amusing news stories from around the globe. She is also a campaigner for the rights of sex workers from all over the world.
In her spare time, Lara keeps herself active by going running, and is something of a film buff. She also loves to go travelling.
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