Why do legislators keep failing victims in online harms?

ABSTRACT

Online harms policy debates, and subsequent legislation, take, as their starting point, a prohibitive perspective which assumes that harms that occur online can be prevented, and, because they are facilitated with digital technology, they can be prevented with such. By exploring current debates around the pinnacle of online harms legislation in the UK, the Online Safety Bill, we propose that this prohibitive mindset, along with a failure to appreciate online harms as a social ill, rather than a technical one, will emerged poorly developed without a victim centric focus. In exploring the development of legislation around the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, we illustrate the failures in victim centric policy development, and argue that there are many parallels with the ‘war of drugs’ and the failures to tackle these social problems with prohibitive legislation, and suggest there is much to learn from these issues should policy makers care to look.

KEYWORDS:

• Online harms
• harm reduction
• image based abuse

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://hansard.parliament.uk/Lords/2023-02-01/debates/67BA25B1-DF5D-4B0A-9DA0-51246B0A8BD5/OnlineSafetyBill?highlight=harding%20online%20safety%20bill#contribution-FC570A74-ED27-4F25-88F4-D1FBE1A456F8

2 https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-04-19/debates/F88B42D3-BFC4-4612-B166-8D2C15FA3E4E/OnlineSafetyBill#contribution-6CBD6BCC-325E-4710-B8FB-9A4F82C732E3

3 We also see this rhetorical device used in much debate – for example: https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-12-15/debates/1B8FD703-21A5-4E85-B888-FFCC5705D456/OnlineHarmsConsultation#contribution-D2B84BB2-E5A3-49E3-8110-634CF406C357

4 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-hosts-internet-safety-summit

5 https://learning.nspcc.org.uk/media/1045/byron-review-10-years-on-report.pdf

6 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/safety

7 https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2020-02-13/debates/A5CF7D6C-ECF0-459E-AE73-6D810E794236/OnlineHarmsLegislation

8 https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2014-06-19/debates/14061947000003/RevengePornography

9 http://www.revengepornhelpline.org.uk/

10 https://www.gov.uk/government/news/law-around-non-consensual-taking-making-and-sharing-of-sexual-images-to-be-reviewed

11 https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-12-05/debates/E155684B-DEB0-43B4-BC76-BF53FEE8086A/OnlineSafetyBill? contribution-DD9DD3B0-3FE4-4488-ACE0-2465E64204CC

12 https://hansard.parliament.uk//Commons/1978-02-10/debates/d8d6a02b-8dab-4cde-8f05-3cbb1326f710/ProtectionOfChildrenBill#contribution-83f95c97-cc42-4eb5-b475-ebb2905662ef

13 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/578979/GD8_-_Sexting_Guidance.pdf

14 https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/2022-12-05/debates/E155684B-DEB0-43B4-BC76-BF53FEE8086A/OnlineSafetyBill? contribution-DD9DD3B0-3FE4-4488-ACE0-2465E64204CC

15 https://hansard.parliament.uk/Commons/1970-03-25/debates/f91449c8-2f64-4b79-9bfc-0aa5f0c72908/MisuseOfDrugsBill#

16 https://harmreduction.org/about-us/principles-of-harm-reduction/

17 See https://stopncii.org/?lang=en-gb [Accessed February 2023]

18 See https://www.iwf.org.uk/ [Accessed February 2023]

19 See https://news.microsoft.com/2009/12/15/new-technology-fights-child-porn-by-tracking-its-photodna/#sm.0001mpmupctevct7pjn11vtwrw6xj [Accessed February 2023]

20 See https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/ [Accessed January 2023]