Publishing intimate images without the subject's consent is now a misdemeanor in California, but victims' advocates believe the effort doesn't go far enough

Tim Robberts

Governor Jerry Brown announced this week that he had signed a bill that would outlaw the publication of “revenge porn,” a subset of online pornography comprised of graphic images or videos posted to the web without the subject’s consent.

With its passage, Calfornia becomes the second state following New Jersey with an anti-revenge-porn law on its books, but many victims and advocates are not celebrating because the law does not offer legal protection to victims who took the photos themselves.

A person can only be charged under the law if he or she published photos that they themselves had taken of a victim. A survey conducted by the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, a non-profit that confronts abuse online, found that 80 percent of photos published in revenge porn cases were self-taken shots, so the California law would only protect a minority of victims.

The news does come as some relief to the scores of revenge porn victims who have had their lives destroyed by jealous exes and blackhat hackers. The law will make publishing pornographic material of someone without consent and “with the intent to cause serious emotional distress” a misdemeanor, punishable by up to six months in jail or a $1,000 fine.

“It’s a good first step,” said Natalie Webb, director of communications at the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative. “But it doesn’t really offer meaningful coverage to most victims who have reached out to us. I’ve answered the e-mails of victims who reach out to us and the truth is, this won’t protect many of them.”

Republican State Senator Anthony Cannella, who sponsored the bill, said the original version of the bill included protections for victims who took photographs themselves.

“I can understand [victims’] concerns with the final bill, but at least we got people talking about it,” he said. “Then we can do more in the future.”

Holly Jacobs, the founder of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and herself a revenge porn victim, said she believed much of the pushback that came from California legislators was rooted in “victim blaming.”

“If you want my honest opinion as to why this law is so weak, I believe it was unfortunately due to victim-blaming on the part of other legislators,” Jacobs said in an e-mail. One bill drafter, Jacobs said, told her people who take intimate self-shots are “stupid.”

Charlotte Laws, a revenge porn activist who worked with Cannella on the bill, said that it was important to pass a bill which be expanded later.

“The future plan is to make an amendment so that self-shots are covered,” Laws said. “But I do feel like California has wiped away some tears and pain with the passage of this law.” Laws’s daughter, Kayla, was the victim of revenge porn when a hacker allegedly stole intimate photos she had taken of herself from her computer.

Jacobs said she is working to get anti-revenge porn legislation on the books in Alabama, Georgia, Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.