UL Student Life would like to respond to the recent call to enact legislation making Image-Based Sexual Abuse (IBSA), more commonly known as Revenge Porn, illegal and for it to be implemented immediately to protect individuals from future incidents of non-consensual sharing and publication.
In our country, it is not illegal for someone to share intimate photos of another without their consent. ULSL believes that IBSA should be illegal and that the events are not only a violation of consent, but also a violation of privacy.
We acknowledge Minister for Justice Helen McEntee in her effort to bring the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Bill (2017) before the Dáil.
We are requesting a commitment from the Government to prioritise this legislation, as we recognise the urgency of the issue and the number of victims that need support and protection.
Regardless of who these victims are or were, they did not and do not deserve for their images to be stolen and circulated to people without their consent. This is a huge breach of one’s privacy and the people responsible for these leakages, need to be reprimanded.
It is now our responsibility as Irish citizens to take action on this now. You can sign the petition via the link in our bio.
However, we also need to educate ourselves on the topic of Image Based Sexual Abuse. It is not good enough anymore to sit back and wait until this happens to someone you know. Action in signing this petition and educating ourselves on these incidents is required to prevent this from happening again to anyone.
We will be having a workshop at the start of December around Revenge Porn to look at these issues and would strongly encourage all University of Limerick students to attend. Some of the topics discussed in the workshop will be talking about the legislation and why it shouldn’t be labelled “Revenge Porn”.
If you or someone you know has been made a victim of IBSA in recent days, please reach out to the supports listed in the graphic.
