NYC Leaders Want To Criminalize 'Revenge Porn'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- New York City leaders want to make "revenge porn" a crime.
Revenge porn, the act of posting sexually explicit or intimate photos or videos of a person online without their consent, is illegal in Washington, D.C. and 35 states, but New York is not one of them.
The City Council is now taking action.
"You would think that posting naked and intimate pictures of another person without their consent online would already be a crime," City Councilman Rory Lancman (D-24th) said. "We are going to give our district attorneys the tools to prosecute people who commit these horrendous acts of invasion of another person's privacy and dignity."
In New York state, a victim can sue someone for revenge porn, but there is no criminal law against it.
A council bill would punish revenge porn with up to a year behind bars, but state legislation to make it a felony is languishing in Albany.
The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative said its 2013 survey showed about 90 percent of victims were women, most between 18 and 30 years old, whose nude photos or videos shared with someone else were posted online.
More than half were posted by ex-boyfriends, almost one-fourth by an ex-friend.
Facebook announced Wednesday that it is increasing efforts to fight revenge porn.
(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)