Revenge porn bill heads to governor

There are now 40 states (and Washington, D.C.) that have revenge porn laws, according to the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative.

Ohio isn’t one of them, but it’s now just a governor’s signature away from joining the list.

The Ohio House on Dec. 13 passed House Bill 497, which prohibits the nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images, often referred to as “revenge porn,” by setting penalties to punish those who distribute sexually explicit images with the intent to harass the victim.

“The act of distributing intimate images often occurs as the result of a breakup in a

relationship,” said Rep. John Rogers, D-Mentor-onthe-Lake.

“When a relationship ends on a sour note, one party may react with vengeance and decide to publish or post personal images of their former significant other on social media or to friends and family members with the intent of harming their former partner.”

Rogers sponsored the House Bill along with North Ridgeville Republican Nathan Manning.

“This important legislation will make needed changes to our civil and criminal code to provide victims of image based violence the resources to fight

back and also deter others from being victims in the future,” Manning said.

Rogers added that once revenge porn images are posted online, they can often “spread like wildfire” across multiple websites. Sometimes images are included along with contact information of the victim, leading to harassment.

“The outcome of this conduct can cause a multitude of personal and professional issues, in addition to the humiliation and embarrassment a victim may feel when their most intimate, private exchanges are shared with the world,” Rogers said.

The bill received support from Ohio Sen. Joe Schiavoni, D-Boardman, who introduced a revenge porn bill in the last legislative session that did not make it out of committee.

He introduced a revenge porn bill again during this legislative session in January.

At a January press conference in Columbus where Schiavoni announced the reintroduction of his revenge porn bill, Youngstown resident Katelyn Bowden shared her experience as a revenge porn victim.

In 2017, she received a message from an acquaintance on Facebook letting her know her photos had been shared online without permission. Her ex-boyfriend’s phone had been stolen and nude photos of her had ended up online on dozens of sites and had been viewed thousands of times. There were comments saying horrible things about her.

“They didn’t see me as a person, just an object to be sexualized and humiliated,”

Bowden said.

Bowden said she was able to track down the original person who posted the photos. It was someone she knew. He admitted to stealing the phone to get access to the images. She went to the police with what she thought was “rock solid evidence:” a text message confession. She was told the only crime was the theft of the cell phone.

“I was told that in the state of Ohio, a cellphone had more rights than me, a human being,” she said.

Bowden is the co-founder of Babes Against Demeaning and Abusive Selfie Sharing (BADASS), a group of victims and allies working to stop revenge porn. In a Facebook post following the Dec. 12 passage of the Senate’s version of the bill, the group said it is excited to see the legislation moving

forward.

The bill heading to the governor’s desk also creates certain legal rights and protections to a victim of the offense. These include preventing an institution of higher learning from withholding financial assistance on the grounds that a student was a victim of nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images, and also prevents such institutions from disciplining that student for the same reason.

It also extends these protections to licensing authorities, preventing them from refusing to license or to renew a license for victims.

“It is about time that victims of revenge porn have legal recourse against those who distribute private sexual images without consent,” Schiavoni said