As revenge porn is treated like a communications crime rather than a sexual crime, victims aren't guaranteed anonymity. They might be afraid to speak out knowing that the culprit might retaliate, and over a third of victims from the past year have decided against pursuing cases. Police, meanwhile, frequently don't know how to handle the crime. A 2017 University of Suffolk study showed that 95 percent of officers hadn't had any training on the subject.

The country's Home Office and Ministry of Justice defended the practice in a mutual statement, saying they'd worked with victims and activists who agreed that revenge porn shouldn't be considered a sex offense since the intentions were "almost always malicious" rather than sexual. Whether or not that's true, that doesn't alleviate concerns that the law might need tweaking to prove effective and deter people from treating sensitive photos as weapons.