Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Lee Li-feng (李麗芬) yesterday urged the Ministry of Education (MOE) to devise measures to prevent young people from spreading explicit images of other people against their will, and called attention to “revenge porn” targeting minors.
Speaking at a news conference in Taipei, the legislators called on people not to view, spread, download or blame victims of revenge porn — explicit videos or photographs of people taken by their former partners that are spread on the Internet following a breakup.
Spreading revenge porn is a new type of crime that emerged in the computer age and is also a gender equality issue, as research has shown that about 95 percent of victims are women, Wu said.
Photo: Su Fang-he, Taipei Times
Statistics showed that there is a growing trend of elementary or junior-high school students falling victim to revenge porn, which means that minors are at serious risk, she said.
The ministry has created abundant teaching materials promoting gender equality, but little has been done to protect students from revenge porn, Wu said.
The measures adopted by gender equality committees at schools are insufficient to deal with cases of revenge porn, as the perpetrators face demerits at most, while the victims are advised to transfer to other schools to help them relieve the psychological pressure, Wu said.
“The key is prevention and raising awareness, because once the images are circulated, there is no way to stop them from being spread,” she said.
The ministry should inform students about the potential dangers of meeting people online, teach them they have the right to say “No” to having their naked photographs taken and that it is wrong to take and spread such photographs, she said.
It should also establish procedure for teachers to follow when they encounter a case of revenge porn, Wu said.
Taking or spreading naked photographs of minors without their consent is a felony, according to the Child and Youth Sexual Exploitation Prevention Act (兒童及少年性剝削防制條例), even if the photographer is a minor too, Lee said.
She said she would demand that the ministry improve students’ understanding of the act and teach them to respect others’ privacy at an early age.
As for adults who fall victim to revenge porn, Lee said she would deliberate over the possibility of amending existing laws to require social media operators to expedite or simplify the removal of inappropriate images from their Web sites, as the sites often implement a lengthy verification procedure for potentially inappropriate images of adults to be removed, making it difficult to prevent the photographs from being spread.
The legislators said they would consider proposing a bill or amendments to the Criminal Code to introduce punishments for people who use revenge porn to hurt their former partners.
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