Image-Based Sexual Abuse in the UK: Challenges and Lessons for Law, Policy and Practice

Speaker: Professor Clare McGlynn, Durham University, UK

This presentation will examine the current state of laws and policies across the UK targeting image-based sexual abuse, as well as considering the challenges of engaging in the law reform process. While there are a variety of criminal laws outlawing some forms of image-based sexual abuse, in general these provisions are piecemeal, inconsistent, out-of-date and unjustifiably discriminate between victim-survivors. Possible reasons for these shortcomings will be examined, including a failure of Government and policy-makers to properly understand the nature and harms of image-based sexual abuse, as well as the paradox of an initial ‘rush to legislate’ followed by political inertia. Most recently, political attention has turned to regulating social media and porn companies regarding their role in the distribution of image-based sexual abuse, with proposals to introduce a ‘duty of care’ on such companies, as well as demanding greater enforcement of their own terms and conditions. The term ‘image-based sexual abuse’ is used here to refer to all forms of the non-consensual taking and/or sharing of private sexual images, including threats and altered images, often known as ‘deepfakes’ or ‘fakeporn’.

About the speaker

Clare McGlynn is a Professor of Law at Durham University in the UK with over twenty years of experience working with governments, policy-makers and voluntary organisations to reform laws relating to pornography, sexual violence and image-based sexual abuse, including ‘revenge porn’ and voyeurism. She played a central role in the adoption of new laws across the UK criminalizing the non-consensual distribution of intimate images, ‘upskirting’ and the possession of extreme pornography, regularly giving evidence before the Scottish and UK Parliaments and engaging in media and public debates. Her 2019 research (with colleagues) – Shattering Lives and Myths: a report on image-based sexual abuse – identified the serious harms of image-based sexual abuse and problems with current laws and policies across the UK, making a range of recommendations for law and policy reform. She is the co-editor of Rethinking Rape Law: international and comparative perspectives (2010, with Munro) and Feminist Judgments: from theory to practice (2010, with Hunter and Rackley); and author of The Woman Lawyer: making the difference (1998) and Families and the European Union: law, politics and pluralism (2006).

CPD Points: 1

This event is hosted by the Sydney Institute of Criminology at The University of Sydney Law School.

Location: Sydney Law School, Common Room, Level 4, New Law Building (F10), Eastern Avenue, Camperdown

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