Today my home state of Washington became the 25th state to criminalize the nonconsensual distribution of intimate images. All but three went into effect after the crusading efforts of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative began just a couple short years ago. Congratulations to Legal Voice and Antoinette Bonsignore for the tremendous work on making this happen in WA!
The law is one of the best we’ve seen insofar as it lacks the POV bias characterizing some. That is, it smartly sloughs off unnecessary verbiage proscribing the offender’s motivation. I’m glad that WA resisted the touchy-feely preciousness we’ve seen in other states that prioritize the offender’s motive and require the offender have be motivated by the desire to harass or harm the victim. Such language limits the scope of the law, excluding so many victims. After all, offenders don’t always do it to harm or harass. In the Penn State case, they posted nudes on the private Facebook page to bond with their frat bros. In the celebrity hacking scandal, it was for money and the thrill of it. Sometimes it’s to brag about sexual conquests, for the lulz, boredom, or for no reason at all.
The point is, the offender’s motives don’t matter. It’s devastating for the victim no matter what. Think about it, when somebody steals your Chanel purse, the law doesn’t rise and fall on the thief’s motive. It doesn’t matter if it was to maliciously steal the dental floss out of the side pocket, to constructively use the quilted leather as a potholder, or to ingeniously develop a stylish puppy leash out of the leather and chain shoulder strap. Speaking of purses, Washington State victims can start to fill theirs with whatever crusty dollars the offenders happen to have because WA also adopted a civil remedy enabling victims to sue the offenders directly.
