Sex Crimes Unlawful Dissemination of Intimate Image

by | Jan 16, 2019 | Sex Crimes

With the rapid advancement of modern technology, law makers are in the position of having to play catch up in the area of Sex Crimes and the Unlawful Dissemination of Intimate Images. child pornography One such example where lawmakers had to step in and pass legislation in order to address a recent problem was on the phenomenon commonly referred to as “revenge porn”. A typical scenario in which this takes place is when two partners break up and one posts sexually explicit images of the other that were sent to them with consent on social media without the person’s depicted consent. Officially, it is known as unlawful dissemination of intimate image which is defined as a person commits the offense if, with intent to harass, annoy or alarm a current or former sexual or intimate partner, the person spreads a visual depiction of the partner in a state of nudity or engaged in sexual conduct. This crime can be found in section 3131 of the crimes code. This crime was passed in order to address the underlying issue, consent, which is essential to these cases.

In terms of background for Sex Crimes such as the Unlawful Dissemination of an Intimate Image, it has been illegal for a long while in Pennsylvania to take images such as photos or video of another person without their consent. indecent exposure However, in these “revenge porn” cases, the images were taken and distributed to the other person with consent. The problem becomes when the person with consent to have the images, distributes them to people who do not have the person’s depicted consent. Because of technological advances and an expanding use of social media websites like snapchat, it has become extremely easy to distribute sexually explicit photos to other people. Due to the fact that these social media sites are used heavily by teens and younger adults, it is not uncommon for the sexually explicit images to be of minors. This statue makes it a misdemeanor of the first-degree if the images are depicting minors and a misdemeanor of the second-degree if the age of the person depicted is above the age of 18.

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