THE PERILS OF SEXTING

It’s not often that Alberta politicians of different political stripes come together. Still, it’s to their credit that legislative members have unanimously supported a Wildrose MLA’s private member’s bill designed to protect people who have intimate images shared without their consent.

Bill 202, which was introduced by Bonnyville-Cold Lake MLA Scott Cyr, provides legal recourse for Albertans to claim monetary damages if images of them naked, or engaged in sexual activity, are distributed or published without their permission.

Significantly, the bill will ensure consistency among school boards, giving them the power to suspend or expel students found sharing personal images of other pupils.

The legislation will hopefully dissuade people from disseminating such images for fear of financial repercussions, but perhaps the best approach is the sort of conversation Cyr says he had with his 11-year-old daughter.

The MLA has spoken of a somewhat awkward chat he had with his preteen, during which he explained that once a picture is online, there are few hopes of getting rid of it. “She said to me, ‘How is this OK?’” says Cyr. “I said, ‘There’s not much we can do about it,’ but then I realized that doesn’t seem to be an answer I’m satisfied with.”

The result, of course, is Cyr’s bill. The problem is that holding people accountable for sharing images without permission presents a legal burden. That’s especially true when the material can be shared swiftly, raising questions about where the guilty intent ends and making it difficult to hold perpetrators responsible.

The dangers of online bullying are clear. All Canadians mourn the death of Rehtaeh Parsons, the 17-year-old Nova Scotian who attempted suicide and then was taken off life-support in 2013 after a photo of an earlier intimate encounter appeared online without her knowledge.

Parsons was a tragic victim, pure and simple. But in supporting Cyr’s bill this week, Airdrie MLA Angela Pitt cited a study of high school students, in which 20 per cent of teens said they had sexted a partner and 25 per cent admitted to forwarding those images to friends.

Such a revelation is proof of the need of legislation that discourages the unapproved sharing of intimate photos, but it is also evidence of the need for adults to engage in the same kind of conversation Cyr had with his daughter.

There are many adults who choose to overlook the perils of the Internet, but at a minimum, we should do our best to inform young people about the possible consequences of sexting.

If the images don’t exist, there’s no danger of them being shared.