Stricter privacy laws may be needed to deter teenagers from distributing "revenge porn" material, a New South Wales Upper House inquiry has heard.

New South Wales Parliament's Law and Justice Committee inquiry into remedies for serious privacy invasions is today considering what action can be taken to deter ex-lovers who take revenge on their former partners by distributing explicit images online.

The former head of the Australian Law Reform Commission, Professor Barbara McDonald, told the inquiry more people might think twice about sharing naked pictures of someone without their permission if it was clearly against the law.

"Schools and the Children's Commissioner from the Human Rights Commission said that they would like to be able to say to their pupils, 'yes this is against the law to seriously invade other people's privacy'," Professor McDonald said.

"Not that they think people will be rushing off and suing, but simply so they can point to a law that this is not lawful to this sort of thing.

"The question then is what the consequences should be depending on the age?"

The inquiry has also heard from the NSW Privacy Commissioner, Elizabeth Coombs, who said there were gaps in the system that had been exposed by technology changes.

"We have instant and worldwide communication, where anyone with a smart phone can become an internet superstar in a matter of hours," Dr Coombes said.

"The ability of the common law to protect privacy rights and regulate appropriately and comprehensively the appropriate use of people's information or incursions into their privacy is hampered by a lack of flexibility and timeliness."

Several researchers from universities across the state and advocacy groups are also appearing at the inquiry.

Submissions have addressed the lack of laws around penalties for the sharing of explicit images without consent.

Committee chairwoman Natasha Maclaren-Jones has previously said the growth of social media has meant "invasions of privacy through online forums, such as the alarming trend of jilted lovers posting sexually explicit photographs of ex-partners on the internet, has immediate and vast reaching repercussions".

In its submission to the inquiry, the Women's Legal Services NSW recommended new criminal sanctions be introduced in NSW and wrote, "any criminal offence should consider and recognise the prevalence of sexting among minors".

They highlighted the fact that children are reluctant to report the non-consensual sharing of explicit images because they fear they may be prosecuted for sharing the initial images, even if they were done with consent.

"If a new criminal offence is created to address the distribution or threatened distribution of intimate sexual images there needs to be a corresponding amendment so this new offence is considered a personal violence offence for the purposes of NSW Victims Support," the submission read.

NSW Council of Civil Liberties president Stephen Blanks said the council did not see issue with revenge porn being dealt with by both criminal and civil laws.

"Federal Parliament is looking at possibly introducing criminal penalties but that would still leave a gap because individuals wouldn't have the ability to seek their own remedies — there needs to be the right of a private action, that people can take where their privacy is seriously invaded," he told ABC News.

In its submission, the council said the attraction of a civil cause of action would offer the victim either an injunction forcing the removal of the material, or damages.

"We're strongly supportive of a practical remedy for people in cases of serious invasion of privacy," Mr Blanks said.

"People should have the right to take private action where their privacy has been seriously invaded.

"It's a real gap in the law as it stands at the moment."