U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts, introduced legislation this week that aims to protect military service members from the nonconsensual sharing of revealing or sexually explicit photos -- a practice known as "revenge porn."

The Massachusetts Democrat, who serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the measure seeks to close a loophole in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which currently bars service members from taking a photo of another person's "private area," but not from sharing such images without the person's consent.

Specifically, the legislation calls for amending the UCMJ to explicitly ban nonconsensual distribution of pornographic photographs, as well as to prohibit "harassing communication" and enhance tools available to military prosecutors when such incidents occur, the senator's office noted.

Warren called the bill "a common sense proposal to help protect service members from degrading behavior that undermines our values and damages unit cohesion."

U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, an Armed Services Committee member and measure co-sponsor, added that the legislation "will give military prosecutors the tools they need to put an end to such abuses."

"The United States Military must continue to provide the toughest training in the world - with the highest standards," he said in a statement. "But this culture should never entail sexual assault and related degrading abuses."

The legislation, which was formally offered Tuesday and referred to the Senate Armed Services Committee, comes in response to the Pentagon's recent identification of "revenge porn" as a new area of concern, according to the senators' offices.

Contending that there have been multiple documented incidents of "revenge porn" in the military, they pointed to a case where intimate photos and personal information about female Marines and veterans appeared without permission on a Facebook page, as one example.

Although senior military officials have condemned "revenge porn," the senators argued that their legislation is needed to give the Pentagon the proper tools to work to end the practice.

In addition to Warren's efforts to close the so-called "revenge porn" loophole in the UCMJ, Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker has worked to close a similar gap in state law.

The Republican pushed legislation in late April that would create a new felony offense for the practice, arguing that the law should recognize the serious consequences of "revenge porn."

U.S. Rep. Niki Tsongas, D-Lowell, meanwhile, has introduced legislation that aims to enhance military sexual assault victims' access to legal services and representation.

According to a Department of Defense survey released last month, 4.3 percent of active duty women and 0.6 percent of active duty men reported having experienced sexual assault in the previous year.

Just under 15,000 service members were estimated to have been experienced some kind of sexual assault in 2016, the survey also found.