A couple of weeks ago, a male friend sent me a message asking me what I thought about sexting, the act of sending sexually suggested images or messages over text. I responded that the consensual sharing of desire over any medium was a wonderful thing, but reminded him to take care to ascertain his playmates were trustworthy.
Revenge porn — the sharing of these images to an unintended, often public, audience without the sender’s consent — is a real phenomenon, one that has upended enough lives to engender legislation to curb the practice. In June, Anthony Cannella, a Republican senator, introduced a bill here in California to crack down on revenge porn by making it a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine up to $1,000 and a month in jail. Bill 255, better known as the California revenge porn bill, passed the senate a week ago.
“People who post or text pictures that are meant to be private as a way to seek revenge are reprehensible,” Cannella said when he introduced the legislation, pointing out how little protection victims currently had. “This is a common sense bill that clamps down on those who exploit intimacy and trust for revenge or personal gain.”
Of course, Cannella’s bill requires that the revenge porn make it easy to identify the victim. The amendment to section 647 of the Penal Code currently reads:
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