A significant increase in Revenge Porn incidents observed since April in Great Britain
More than 170 people have been arrested in Britain since new revenge porn laws were introduced in April, but security experts say this is just the tip of the iceberg
Article 33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 was introduced to address the growing social problem in Great Britain arising from the rapid increase in the use of smartphones and social media.
From April 13, “the disclosure of private sexual photos and videos with the intent to cause harm to the person depicted” has become illegal, so the parliament decided to examine the complaints that had been filed with the police.
Submitting Freedom of Information (FoI) requests to 18 police departments in the UK found that many of the 175 incidents recorded since April have been 'abandoned' due to 'insufficient evidence' - suggesting victims are likely too frightened to provide sufficient evidence.
From these studies it was found that the social channels used for the purpose of exposing sexual images and videos for Revenge Porn reasons are Facebook (21 incidents) [note that it is the most popular], and are followed by SnapChat (3 incidents) and WhatsApp (2).
Nick Viney, vice president of Intel Security, says that recent research conducted by the security giant found that more than half (55%) of UK smartphone users have 'personal' content stored on their devices, with 96% of them saying they trust their lovers not to post it online.
It is clear from the FoI results that UK internet users should be more careful and selective about where they store such personal images and videos, as well as who can access them.
