This week, April 6th-12th, is National Victims of Crime Awareness Week. Victims Week is held annually to raise awareness about issues facing victims of crime, and the services, programs and laws in place to help victims and their families. Supported by the federal government, this year over 180 events are happening in communities across the country around the theme Taking Action.
One event of significance is a conference organized by the North Bay Child Abuse Prevention Committee called: Taking Action: Against the Non-Consensual Distribution of Intimate Images. The major issue highlighted by this conference, and one gaining a lot of media attention, surrounds distribution of sexually graphic images without consent.
The issue of non-consensual sharing of intimate images was brought to the attention of many Canadians with the tragic suicide of Halifax teen, Rehtaeh Parsons. Parsons’s parents allege that she was raped at a party when she was 15—and digital images of that crime were shared around her high school. Police investigated the assault but declined to press charges. In April 2013 Parsons took her own life after an intense period of depression. Parsons’s suicide, at the age of 17, inspired a public outcry about lack of proper investigation and led the Halifax Police and RCMP to re-open the case. So far two teens have since been charged with creating and distributing child pornography.
The Parsons’s case highlights issues around responding to criminal activity shared online—and the ramifications of sharing that activity. However, there is also a growing problem with images, which were originally obtained with consent, being shared digitally to friends, social media sites, employers, and even pornography sites or pages.
In any case, the sharing of intimate images without consent is considered to be a form of cyberbullying, but there is currently no protection for victims under the Canadian Criminal Code. In the autumn of 2013, the federal government has tabled legislation which would close this gap and allow for greater protection of victims—and extend the ability of law enforcement to seize devices used in the offence and remove the images from the internet. That legislation is still under debate in the House of Commons.
While there are many components necessary to creating and maintaining a safe environment for youth on social media, proper legislation to address the gap in the Criminal Code around cyberbullying is a foundation of a safer digital landscape.