Kristine Bellino, WIBX
Kristine Bellino, WIBX
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Senator Joseph Griffo announced new legislation in New York State that criminalizes "revenge porn," or sexually explicit photographs that are distributed to the public.

New York's current laws only govern sexually explicit photographs taken without the subjects' consent that are distributed.

In an era of text messaging, social networking, and emailing, it is becoming more common for people in intimate relationships to share pictures with each other. Sometimes these pictures are of a sexually explicit nature.

Unfortunately some people don't keep these photos confined to their intimate relationships, but instead post them on the Internet.

The new law would make distributing any such photos whether they were taken with consent or not, a class-A misdemeanor.

The person who discloses the photos would also be subject to a 30 thousand dollar fine. New Jersey and California have similar laws already in place.

"This so-called phenomena of 'cyber-revenge' is a tawdry form of exploitation," Said Senator Joe Griffo. "From what we know, the majority of its victims are women who didn't know that their images and likenesses has been bartered and sold over the Internet. Currently, these victims have limited options when their pictures taken with with their consent ,were posted online. They would have to enlist a lawyer and threaten to sue the person responsible for sharing the photo or the website hosting them, for invasion of privacy. New Jersey and California have laws addressing this problem, we're advocating that New York should be the third."

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