AT SITE THAT HOSTS OF WELSH WOMEN

Sexual Offences Act 2003, meaning it is now illegal to share intimate pictures and videos without consent. This is regardless of whether the perpetrator intended to cause the victim distress.

Following the updated legislation, the South Wales Police spokesman confirmed they had made an arrest. He said: “South Wales Police’s Cyber Crime Unit have investigated these recent reports and on Tuesday, March 26, arrested a 25-year-old male in connection with this new offence. The male has since been released under investigation and the investigation is ongoing.”

Head of the economic and cyber crime unit Detective Inspector Andrew Westlake added: “South Wales Police is committed to protecting and safeguarding victims of crime. Online platforms are becoming increasingly common for perpetrators to harass, exploit women.

“We understand the importance of safeguarding the online spaces where individuals should feel safe and secure. Every effort will be made to investigate these cases thoroughly. Perpetrators will be pursued and be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”

For the last few years former model and presenter Jess Davies has campaigned to make image-based sexual abuse illegal in England and Wales. The 30-year-old, originally from Aberystwyth, previously spoke out about her images being stolen and used to con money out of men all over the world.

It led to her making the BBC Three documentary When Nudes Are Stolen in 2021, as well as a follow-up investigation in 2022 on deepfake images called Deepfake Porn: Could intimidate and

I only looked at my own folder and it included two videos which I don’t even know how they would have got. I informed as many women as I could, some of them were my friends. One of my friends was even a minor. Some of them already knew about it so it had obviously gone around very quickly

you be next?

Speaking to Wales on Sunday, Jess said she welcomes the new legislation, but can’t help feeling it has come “too little too late”. “I think it’s crazy to think this has been happening for so long,” she said. “My pictures were shared without my consent when I was 15 years old and I’m 30 now.

“This has been happening for so many years for so many women and girls and only now in 2024 is it a crime to distribute that content. So many women have already had their personal images online without their consent, and once those images are online it’s so difficult with our digital footprint to get them removed.”

She said there is still a lot of room for laws relating to image-based abuse to be tightened, and she will continue to campaign for change.

“Currently it is illegal to distribute deepfake porn, but it’s not illegal to create it for personal use,” she said. “The problem with this being legal is that it’s a culture that breeds misogynistic attitudes. If it’s legal to create a deep fake image of a family member, friend or a teacher, then what is that doing to a young boy or man’s mind? That you can watch deepfake porn of anyone and that is not a crime? It’s saying it’s OK to objectify women like that.”

Regarding the forums where image-based abuse is shared, she said the law clearly does not go far enough if these sites still exist. She said: “The people running these forums don’t listen and they’re not closed down. To what extent is the law being used when these forums exist?”

She said whatever women choose to do with their bodies, they should be able to have control over it and also be able to stop and move on from it if they wish. “People should have the right to delete their content if they no longer wish for it to be out there,” she said. “But unfortunately it is shared on all these sites without her consent and then the woman loses agency to say: ‘I want to move on with my life now.’ With films and TV there are copyright laws making it illegal to distribute that content, but when it comes to women’s bodies all that goes out the window.”

Stephanie Grimshaw is head of public affairs at Welsh Women’s Aid. She said figures show a “year on year increase” in reports of image-based crime in England and Wales. Although she said this is partly due to more women being aware of it, she said the figures are still concerning.

She said only 4% of cases reported in the last year led to a charge, while 30% of those cases fell through due to a

This has been happening for so many years for so many women and girls and only now in 2024 is it a crime to distribute that content. So many women have already had their personal images online without their consent, and once those images are online it’s so difficult with our digital footprint to get them removed

lack of evidence. “One of our biggest concerns is training within the police. There are studies that show that police don’t always understand what is a crime and what isn’t [when it comes to image-based abuse]. Support organisations are having to arm survivor’s with knowledge on the law so they are prepared for an officer to say something isn’t a crime, and the survivor can say ‘yes it is’.”

At present, she said the legislation is far from strong enough. “We’ve been responding to the Ofcom consultation on the implementation of the Online Safety Act, and for small organisations there is no obligation for them to even flag child abuse images,” she said. “The legislation really is not strong enough for organisations to have accountability.

“There isn’t even any obligation for anyone working within these companies to have any training on which images are legal or illegal, so how can you expect them to monitor this? It’s on a scale that is unprecedented and the legislation isn’t there to get rid of these images once they’re out there.”

Katie explained how difficult it was for her and the other women involved to process what had happened. She said it left them feeling terrified.

She said: “My main thought when I saw it was to tell my boyfriend because the last thing I wanted was for this to come out as a shock. Then I told my mum, which isn’t a conversation I wanted to have. I could not breathe. I don’t think I breathed properly for weeks.

“I felt so anxious and whenever I went out I felt like everyone was staring at me. One girl who I told rang me bawling her eyes out to me and another said she felt sick and didn’t leave her house for a week. I felt panicked and emotionally unwell.”

Katie said she felt nervous to speak out and finds the topic difficult to open up about. However, she said she has done so to warn other women.

She said: “I wasn’t going to speak out, but I think girls should be aware of who they are sending their photos to and what they are doing with their photos and videos. If I had known this could happen, I would have never done it and neither would my friends. It’s important for girls to know not to trust boyfriends.

“As much as you feel secure something could happen. It’s so creepy to think there are so many men out there invested in women they don’t know. I think young women especially need to remember that once something is on the internet, it never truly leaves the internet. I learnt my lesson the hard way and I hope that by coming forward other women will

know the risks.”