Protection of Children Act 1978

If you're sending intimate photos, taking a selfie is legally safer – here's how to protect yourself

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
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There’s no shame in sending intimate photos to a partner, but it’s not without risk.

Key Points: 
  • There’s no shame in sending intimate photos to a partner, but it’s not without risk.
  • They will also make it a crime to “cyberflash” someone – sending an unsolicited nude.
  • If your photos are already out there, you may be wondering what legal rights and protections you have.
  • This article is part of Quarter Life, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties.
  • Sending takedown notices is free, and most websites have a copyright request form somewhere on their site.

Protecting children

    • And possessing such images is a criminal offence under the Criminal Justice Act 1988.
    • If pictures end up online, you can use Report Remove, an online tool from the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, to report them, even if they aren’t of you.

Sharing safely


    Taking intimate photos and sharing them with consent can be fun, sexy and safe. But sharing photos of others without their consent can be incredibly harmful, and it is (or will soon be) illegal. We’ll never be able to stop all forms of abuse, but there are steps you can take to protect yourself, and lessen the number of people impacted by image-based sexual abuse.

1. Selfies are safer


    If you’re taking photos, take them yourself. Taking a selfie, and owning the copyright, means you can ask websites to take copies down by sending a takedown notice or using a website’s dedicated reporting form.

2. Choose your app wisely

    • If you’re sending sexy photos, set them to “view once” or put a time limit on them, or use an app that deletes images, like Snapchat.
    • This won’t protect you from screenshots, but it does lessen the risk of someone keeping your images.

3. Stay anonymous


    Keep your face, or any identifying features, out of the photos. If they are shared or posted, deniability might help to lessen any negative impacts on you. The increasing ease of creating “deepfake” nudes or pornography is complicating this. There are currently no existing criminal provisions around creating or sharing deepfakes, or nudifying apps. This may change slightly with the online safety bill.

4. Keep your photos to yourself – and delete the rest

    • If you’ve had a romantic or sexual liaison which involved photos, and the relationship has ended, delete the images and ask them to do the same.
    • You wouldn’t expect to keep having sex with your ex, why should you keep their photos?

BBC presenter scandal: an expert explains the law around exchanging sexually explicit images

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, July 11, 2023
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What is known, however, is UK law when it comes to the exchange of sexually explicit material involving young people.

Key Points: 
  • What is known, however, is UK law when it comes to the exchange of sexually explicit material involving young people.
  • According to allegations by the young person’s mother published in The Sun, the presenter paid tens of thousands of pounds in exchange for explicit images.
  • The young person has claimed through their lawyer that “nothing inappropriate or unlawful has taken place”.
  • If the images were exchanged after the young person turned 18, it could be that no law was broken.
  • This law makes it an offence to take, show, make, distribute or advertise indecent photographs or “pseudo-photographs” of a child.

An abuse of power?

    • Any abuse of power or trust could be an aggravating factor which, for sentencing purposes, could increase the maximum sentence to four years’ imprisonment for the making offence.
    • A judge may also take into account the vulnerability of the child depicted, the number of images made or possessed and whether the child appeared to be intoxicated or drunk.
    • Since 2017, it extends to situations where images are streamed (such as via the internet) or otherwise transmitted by some other technological means.