Writes Zena, Content writer, Headline Diplomat eMagazine
News Flash: Upskirting is now a criminal offense punishable by up to 2 years in jail…
Upskirt, defined by the Collins dictionary, is the practice of taking pictures underneath a woman’s skirt or dress without consent.
The BBC most recently investigated and discovered lots of illegal upskirting photos on Facebook. The latest BBC report says the photos were reported to Facebook’s parent company, Meta, but were not taken down immediately.
Under the Voyeurism (Offences) Act, taking photos of someone’s skirt or dress is an offense. This was made possible by a strong campaign by a young woman who had been upskirted at a festival in 2017. Upskirting is usually done in public places, like on public transportation, where many people and the person are doing it are less likely to get caught.
However, a recent investigation found thousands of illegal upskirting photos on Facebook, even though the crime can get you up to two years in jail. “Thousands of users were openly sharing obscene photos and videos of women and girls taken in public without their permission,” the report said.
Several countries have also joined the fight against upskirting;
The UK takes a stand against Upskirting
Upskirting is unlawful in the UK as of today. The government has sent a clear message that such behavior is a criminal act and won’t be tolerated.
Under the new rule, offenders in England and Wales risk up to two years in prison if convicted of taking a photo or video underneath a woman’s clothes for sexual satisfaction or to humiliate, distress, or terrify them.
Germany also frowns at Upskirting
Recently, German lawmakers voted to increase the severity of the punishments for people who record or take pictures of a woman’s neckline or under her skirt without first obtaining her consent. According to the law that was approved by the lower house of the Bundestag, the offence will be penalised by a monetary fine or a prison sentence of up to two years, whichever comes first.
Hong Kong joins the fight against Upskirting
In Hong Kong, a new law that was passed on Thursday to combat voyeurism stipulates that those who take non-consensual pictures up a woman’s skirt face a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
At a time when smartphones have sparked an explosion of photographs like these on the internet, the city in southern China is the most recent jurisdiction to set up regulations specifically forbidding “upskirting.”
The criminal code of Hong Kong was recently updated to include new offenses for image-based sexual violence, which resulted in the addition of four new offenses.
Many police officers follow the UK Cop Humour page on Facebook, which has a website and a Twitter account. On its own Facebook page, UK Cop Humour says that every week, it reaches 10 million people across all platforms.
Its Twitter account is a finalist in the reputable Police Tweet Awards. In 2016, it won the Best Community Partnership Account award. The 2017 awards will be judged based on what people post on Facebook, the people in charge said.
The site’s Facebook page highlights that it aims “to remind everyone that the police are the public and the public are the police, and to break down any barriers that exist through humor and positivity wherever possible.”
However, it was criticised for posting pictures of two women hunched over a police car. The picture was taken in South Wales by a member of the public.
The picture was originally posted by another satire page and shared by UK Cop Humour. It was liked more than 2,000 times, and followers of the page posted many comments criticizing the women’s choice of clothes or calling them names like “slags.” Some of the people who spoke up seemed to be police officers.
When several commenters told UK Cop Humour that the post was inappropriate, they said: “If people don’t like the post, they should let the page that wrote it know.
“No, you don’t have to tell us that we both did it. We get it. We both had it. We could think outside the box and see that a random person took this picture, that it was harmless, and that the writing that went with it was funny.
“If it makes you feel bad, you can always stop following the page. No harm done.”
More so, Meta explained how Facebook upholds the integrity of its users by protecting them from harmful content. According to its Adult sexual exploitation policies, the site does not allow secretly taken photos of a real person’s commonly sexualised body parts.
