The Naked Threat - Help us criminalise threats to share an intimate image

There's no such thing as an empty threat.

1 in 7 young women (18 to 34) have experienced threats to share intimate images. We are urging the Government to change the law and make this illegal.

Send your message now

We are calling on Government ministers - Priti Patel, Alex Chalk, Victoria Atkins and Robert Buckland - to make a simple change in the Domestic Abuse Bill to end this type of abuse.

No one should have to live in fear.

If you agree, simply send the message below.

Priti

Patel

UK Parliament

Robert

Buckland

UK Parliament

Alex

Chalk

UK Parliament

Dear Rt Hon Priti Patel MP, Alex Chalk MP, Victoria Atkins MP and Rt Hon Robert Buckland MP,

I am writing to urge you to criminalise threatening to share intimate and sexual images. This is a very important issue to me and a recent report by Refuge highlights the impact on domestic abuse survivors and the prevalence of this problem in society today. I implore you to act to extend the law to protect survivors from this type of abuse as part of the Domestic Abuse Bill.

Refuge has found that 1 in 14 adults in England and Wales, equivalent to 4.4 million people, have experienced threats to share their intimate images or videos. Young women, aged 18-34, are disproportionately impacted, with 1 in 7 having experienced such threats.

This is a domestic abuse issue - 72% of women that experienced threats to share were threatened by their current or former partner.

This form of abuse can have an enormous impact on mental health and emotional wellbeing, shockingly, 1 in 10 women who had experienced threats to share their images felt suicidal as a result.

Sharing an intimate or sexual image or film without consent is a crime; yet threatening to do so is not. This leaves millions of people living in fear.

Extending section 33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 to criminalise threats to share sexual images or films without consent, with the intent to cause distress, is a straight-forward change to the law, that will provide much needed additional protection for survivors of domestic abuse.

Will you act now to protect survivors of domestic abuse and end image-based abuse?

Yours sincerely,

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