ARYesterday (Wednesday 8th May) saw the oral evidence session with the Women’s and Equalities Committee take place in Parliament to discuss the ongoing issue of non-consensual intimate image abuse. Georgia Harrison (reality TV star) who has campaigned tirelessly for stronger protections for victims, gave powerful evidence to the committee alongside discussing her own story of being targeted with intimate image abuse.
MPs were able to hear more about the current gaps within the legal system that are permitting non-consensually shared intimate images to still be allowed to be viewed online as well as show their support to ensure stronger protections are put in place.
#NotYoursToView Campaign
Last week, the Revenge Porn Helpline (operated by SWGfL) started the #NotYoursToView campaign which raised awareness around the ongoing issue that 10% of reported content to the helpline remains online and able to be viewed even if a perpetrator has been convicted. We have highlighted that we currently have 30,000 URLs containing non-consensually shared content that we are unable to remove due to the current legal framework that prevents Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from blocking the content as it is deemed legal. The Independent was able to cover the issue in an exclusive piece that further highlighted our concerns.
The campaign aims to encourage support from MPs, NGOs and organisations to ensure this legal loophole is amended and tougher protections are put in place to protect any individual affected by intimate image abuse. So far, organisations such as Childnet, Suzy Lamplugh Trust, The Survivors Trust, Refuge, Campaign Against Living Miserably, Marie Collins Foundation, Survive, The Cyber Helpline, #NotYourPorn and# MyImageMyChoice have shown their support and we continue to ask for more organisations to come forward and sign our petition.
MP Support
Before the evidence hearing, Members of Parliament were able to meet Georgia and speak to her directly about the issue as well as show their support for the campaign. It was fantastic to see so many MPs wanting to hear more as we welcomed many names including – Caroline Nokes, Kate Osborne, Wendy Chamberlain, Apsana Begum, Daisy Cooper, Wera Hobhouse, Anna McMorrin, Simon Jupp, Ian Lavery, Sarah Edwards, Olivia Blake, Christine Jardine, Angela Richardson, Alex Davies -Jones, Vicky Ford, Therese Coffey, Amy Callaghan and Jess Phillips.
StopNCII.org
David Wright CEO of SWGfL and Keily Blair CEO of OnlyFans were able to present to the Committee the positive impact that StopNCII.org has had in tackling non-consensual intimate image abuse since its inception by SWGfL and Meta in 2021. David was able to highlight that almost 700,000 images are being protected as a result of StopNCII.org’s innovative hashing technology that enables images and videos to be protected without them having to leave the user’s device.
Keily Blair was able to illustrate the positive impact StopNCII.org has had on the protective measures that OnlyFans provides to its users with both calling for wider implementation from other online platforms to ensure individuals are able to keep their content protected online.
David Wright (CEO of SWGfL) said: ‘The evidence hearing was a positive opportunity to bring forward the scathing reality of what we encounter across our helpline every single day. While measures have been brought in to help protect individuals online there are still alarming gaps that there clearly isn’t enough awareness around. It seems completely unjustifiable to convict a perpetrator of intimate image abuse but allow the viewing of the intimate content to continue for all to see. We applaud Georgia for coming forward and speaking so openly about the current weaknesses in the legal system and thank all the MPs for showing their support towards our campaign. We sincerely hope this highlights the need for essential change.’
Call for Evidence
The Women and Equalities Committee is currently welcoming submissions from individuals who have been affected by non-consensual intimate image abuse. If you would like to share your story please follow the below link. You are able to share anonymously just remember to read the terms before submitting.
