Women’s Aid respond to changes to the Online Safety Act which will see the sharing of intimate images without consent become a ‘priority offence’
Sophie Francis-Cansfield, Head of Policy at Women’s Aid, said:
“Women’s Aid welcomes the changes to the Online Safety Act announced today, that will see the sharing of intimate images without consent becoming a priority offence. Intimate image-based abuse, along with other forms of abuse that happen predominantly online are sadly not taken as seriously as those that happen ‘offline’, but it is our hope that legislative changes like this will help improve the urgency and seriousness in which they are dealt with by police and social media companies.
While we welcome today’s announcement, this change must come alongside proper police training on handling these cases and the collection of evidence in them. Charging rates are pitifully low in such cases, largely because, as a relatively new and complex crime, police are still not properly investigating them or collecting evidence. Training is desperately needed if this change is to have a meaningful impact and women and girls are to receive justice for this deeply violating form of abuse.
We are pleased that social media companies will now have to proactively remove materials and stop them reappearing online or face fines but are concerned about how this will be monitored and enforced. There also needs to be consequences for companies who do not comply repeatedly, such as the blocking of sites. Without taking this firm approach, there will be no accountability for companies to ensure they are following regulations.
As the scale of intimate image-based abuse and other forms of online violence against women and girls is so large, there needs to be increased funding to the vital specialist services that support the survivors of online abuse. Women’s Aid would like to see the proceeds of fines, along with those from the Digital Service Tax, going towards the sustainable funding of support service, so survivors of online abuse, who often have nowhere else to turn, are able to receive the support they need to heal.
Intimate image-based abuse is a complex issue and can manifest in many ways. The sharing of AI-generated intimate images, or ‘deepfakes’, was criminalised earlier this year, but it is unclear if this is part of the ‘priority offence’. The Government needs to clarify this, as deepfakes continue to be a deeply harmful and prevalent issue.
The changes that the Government announced today were all recommendations made by the VAWG sector when the Bill was progressing through parliament. They remain urgent and must be implemented and monitored properly. Making the sharing of intimate images without consent a priority offence is a step in the right direction to tackling sexual offending and the normalisation of misogynistic content online, but a lot more needs to be done if the Government is to achieve its mission of halving violence against women and girls in the next decade.”
ENDS
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