Sharing that picture of your ex naked could now land you two years in a UK jail

Not that you would, of course, but if you’ve ever been tempted to post pictures of your ex online, or indeed just flash them around to friends, you can now wind up with a prison sentence in the UK.

Under new regulations that came into force today, the ‘revenge porn’ rules now mean that distributing images of an ex (or anyone, without their permission) via social channels, email, SMS, posting them to a website, or in any other form – including showing them to friends – can land you in the clink.

The new offence criminalizes “the disclosure of photographs or films which show people engaged in sexual activity or depicted in a sexual way (including where their genitals are exposed), where what is shown would not usually be seen in public,” the guidelines (PDF) say. The disclosure must also have been done deliberately with the intention of causing that person distress.

The change has been brought about following a number of cases where UK residents have found images posted online but have had no specific legal recourse to have them taken down. Often, sites that host ‘revenge porn’ are based outside of UK jurisdiction, so it can be difficult to get the offending images or videos removed.

➤ New law to tackle revenge porn [Gov UK]

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