SHIELD Act Would Be First Federal Law on Intimate Image Abuse

You’re probably familiar with the term “revenge porn.” It’s when a jilted boyfriend plasters his ex’s nude images on social media, right? Unfortunately, that misnomer doesn’t do justice to the growing crisis of intimate image abuse affecting women and men of all ages across the globe. Intimate image abuse is not a matter of revenge — it’s a matter of sexual violence.

Better terms include “nonconsensual porn” or “image-based sexual abuse.” These terms are more fitting because the nature and consequences of intimate image abuse mirror other forms of abuse. In my own research as associate professor of psychology at Florida International University and head of research for Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), colleagues and I found that nonconsensual porn in intimate relationships shares features of in-person relationship violence. Specifically, it can be perpetrated to maintain power and control over victims. In one case, a 34-year-old Michigan perpetrator posted intimate images of his ex-girlfriend online, saying he would keep posting the photos until she returned his belongings. This example illustrates both emotional abuse and coercion.

Research also finds that victims of intimate image abuse suffer from PTSD, depression, anxiety, and physical health problems. They have to obtain restraining orders, change jobs and residences, and endure public judgment and humiliation. Survivors have described the experience as “torture for the soul,” causing isolation, existential threat, social rupture, constrained liberty, and constant fear and vigilance.

Sadly, this form of abuse has become common in the U.S., with research finding that as many as one in 12 adults have been victims of nonconsensual porn. Nonconsensual porn is also a gender-based form of violence, with women being victimized at a greater rate than men (~1.4 times as likely). Since COVID-19, unfortunately, these numbers have likely increased. Calls to the CCRI crisis helpline in the U.S., for example, increased 38.39% since the start of the pandemic, while calls to the U.K. hotline increased 22%.

Though laws exist in most U.S. states criminalizing nonconsensual porn, many of them fail to protect all victims. For example, some laws require evidence that the perpetrator intended to cause the victim harm. Aside from being an unusually difficult standard to meet, not all intimate image abuse is done for reasons of anger or vindication. Some perpetrators disseminate the images to gain popularity or social status. Others, like Hunter Moore, founder of the now-defunct online pornographic site Is Anyone Up?, do it for financial gain. Another loophole in existing state laws is the failure to include all the ways intimate image abuse can be perpetrated (e.g., through text messages).

Thanks to the tireless efforts of victim advocates, however, a comprehensive legal approach to this crime is finally on the table: the SHIELD Act (for “Stopping Harmful Image Exploitation and Limiting Distribution”). Originally introduced by Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., and Rep. John Katko, R-N.Y., in 2019, this bipartisan federal bill would be the first ever to outlaw the distribution of private intimate visual depictions without consent. As an amendment to the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021, the SHIELD Act recognizes the severe and long-term harms of intimate image abuse by penalizing the nonconsensual sharing of intimate images through any communications service (e.g., email, text, online posting) with a fine and potential prison sentence. This proposed law was crafted in close consultation with Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI) — the nation’s foremost nonprofit working to end image-based sexual abuse. CCRI President Dr. Mary Anne Franks drafted, in 2013, the first model criminal statute on nonconsensual pornography, which has served as the template for multiple state laws and the SHIELD Act.

However, ending image-based sexual abuse requires more than a criminal law — even at the federal level. Public education, training of service providers and legal professionals, international legal and tech company collaborations, technology and privacy innovations, interdisciplinary research, and enhanced services for survivors are all needed to fully address the causes and consequences of this abuse. For example, intimate image abuse needs to be a part of public school sex education. Social media companies need to build infrastructure and technology for monitoring and removing nonconsensual porn from their platforms (for an example of efforts in the right direction, see Facebook). And survivors deserve accessible, trauma-informed treatment for the harms they suffer. However, the SHIELD Act represents an important step on the journey to justice for current and potential survivors — a journey that should start with calling this phenomenon what it is: abuse.

More information on image-based sexual abuse, including victim resources, legal information, scientific research, and more, is available from the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative.

To support the passage of the SHIELD Act, contact your representatives and tell them you support the 2021 reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), including the SHIELD Act.