Crackdown on intimate image abuse under stronger online safety laws

Under the changes, social media firms will have to proactively remove and stop this material appearing on their platforms, or face fines, says the Home Office.

The strengthening of the law forms part of the Government’s commitment to ensure new and existing technologies are safely developed and help keep people safer online, particularly women and girls, with more than one in three women in the UK having experienced abuse online.

The Home Office says the changes will help tackle sexual offending and the normalisation of misogynistic material online as part of the mission to halve violence against women and girls over the next decade.

Technology Secretary Peter Kyle said: “The rise in intimate image abuse online is utterly intolerable. As well as being devastating for victims these crimes have also contributed to the creation of a misogynistic culture on social media that can spread into potentially dangerous relationships offline.

“We must tackle these crimes from every angle, including their origins online, ensuring tech companies step up and play their part.

“That is why we will classify these vile and cowardly offences as the most severe types of crime under the Online Safety Act. Social media firms will face extra legal obligations – backed up by big fines – to uproot this content from their sites, helping to stop their normalisation and preventing generations becoming desensitised to their damaging effects.

Safeguarding Minister Jess Phillips said: “Intimate image abuse is an appalling, invasive crime and technology companies must do much more to tackle it. We will use every tool available to achieve our unprecedented mission of halving violence against women and girls within a decade and this is an important step forward.

“The scale of violence against women and girls in all its forms is a national emergency, whether in person or online. We must overhaul every aspect of society’s response to stop this abuse from happening in the first place.

“Platforms must take responsibility for the content they host and we must ensure victims receive the support they deserve.”

Victims Minister Alex Davies-Jones said intimate image abuse is a “degrading and deeply misogynistic crime”, adding: “We must pull all levers available to us to stamp it out.

“Today’s announcement builds on the progress which has already been made, making it a specific offence to share intimate images online without consent.

“It also sends a clear message to those companies who turn a blind eye to such heinous content on their platforms – remove it without delay or face the full force of the law.”

The Online Safety Act will require social media firms and search services to protect their users from illegal material on their sites, with protections due to come into force from spring next year.

The most serious forms of illegal content are classed as ‘priority offences’ meaning regulated online platforms will have additional duties to proactively remove and stop from appearing on their sites.

The latest move will mean intimate image offences are treated as priority offences under the Act, putting them on the same footing as public order offences and the sale of weapons and drugs online.

If firms fail to comply with their duties the regulator Ofcom will have robust enforcement powers, including imposing fines that could reach up to ten per cent of qualifying worldwide revenue.

Georgia Harrison, journalist and advocate for online safety and the prevention of violence against women and girls, said: “I am proud to be part of the announcement that intimate image abuse will now be recognised as a priority offence.

“As a victim of voyeurism and image-based sexual abuse, what shocked me the most is that certain platforms were not only spreading and advertising this harmful content but also legally monetising it.

“This new legislation could have shielded me from such exploitation and, more importantly, validated that my voice matters. I earnestly hope tech companies will take this seriously and implement meaningful changes to their algorithms and corporate policies to prevent this type of abuse.

“It is inspiring to see the Government taking concrete steps to address the rise in violence against women and girls. Change is imperative, and this is a promising start and I thank them for supporting this crucial cause.”

Sophie Francis-Cansfield, head of Policy at Women’s Aid, said: “Women’s Aid welcomes the changes to the Online Safety Act announced today, that will see the sharing of intimate images without consent becoming a priority offence. Intimate image-based abuse, along with other forms of abuse that happen predominantly online are sadly not taken as seriously as those that happen ‘offline’, but it is our hope that legislative changes like this will help improve the urgency and seriousness in which they are dealt with by police and social media companies.

“While we welcome today’s announcement, this change must come alongside proper police training on handling these cases and the collection of evidence in them. Charging rates are pitifully low in such cases, largely because, as a relatively new and complex crime, police are still not properly investigating them or collecting evidence. Training is desperately needed if this change is to have a meaningful impact and women and girls are to receive justice for this deeply violating form of abuse.

“We are pleased that social media companies will now have to proactively remove materials and stop them reappearing online or face fines but are concerned about how this will be monitored and enforced. There also needs to be consequences for companies who do not comply repeatedly, such as the blocking of sites. Without taking this firm approach, there will be no accountability for companies to ensure they are following regulations.”

She added: “As the scale of intimate image-based abuse and other forms of online violence against women and girls is so large, there needs to be increased funding to the vital specialist services that support the survivors of online abuse. Women’s Aid would like to see the proceeds of fines, along with those from the Digital Service Tax, going towards the sustainable funding of support service, so survivors of online abuse, who often have nowhere else to turn, are able to receive the support they need to heal.

“Intimate image-based abuse is a complex issue and can manifest in many ways. The sharing of AI-generated intimate images, or ‘deepfakes’, was criminalised earlier this year, but it is unclear if this is part of the ‘priority offence’. The Government needs to clarify this, as deepfakes continue to be a deeply harmful and prevalent issue.

Ms Francis-Cansfield said the changes that the Government announced were all recommendations made by the VAWG sector when the Bill was progressing through Parliament.

“They remain urgent and must be implemented and monitored properly,” she said. “Making the sharing of intimate images without consent a priority offence is a step in the right direction to tackling sexual offending and the normalisation of misogynistic content online, but a lot more needs to be done if the Government is to achieve its mission of halving violence against women and girls in the next decade.”