Canberra Liberals move to outlaw 'revenge porn'

Liberal attorney-general's spokesman, Jeremy Hanson, said revenge porn was a growing problem, with one study suggesting one in five people nationwide had had "revealing images" shared online without permission.

The scale of the problem was "appalling", with indigenous and disabled people the most common target and men and women equally likely to be victims.

Mr Hanson's legislation, modelled on the Victorian legislation, imposes penalties of up to two years in prison for distributing "intimate" images of someone, if the distribution is "an indecent invasion of privacy".

An offender can be jailed for up to a year for threatening to distribute an intimate image.

The legislation doesn't require malicious intent for a prosecution, but it provides a defence if the person posting the image believed he or she had consent to share the image, as long as the person photographed or videoed was at least 18.

An intimate image is defined is an image of a person engaged in sexual activity or in "any other manner or context that is sexual", a person's genital or anal region, or a person's breasts if they are female or identify as female.

Mr Hanson is releasing his draft legislation for comment before tabling it, most likely in June. He hopes to get Greens support.

Describing revenge porn as "a scourge that is destroying lives", he said other jurisdictions had acted and it was time the ACT did the same.

"We believe this is a serious problem," he said. "It is unacceptable that this is occurring so commonly, and it is unacceptable for us not to respond."

He hoped the laws, if passed, would act as a deterrent to people thinking of posting images, and ensure that if images were posted they were taken down quickly.

Victims of Crime commissioner John Hinchey welcomed the move, saying the ACT had discussed the issue for long enough and should now act. Ideally, nationally consistent legislation would be passed, but he hoped that Mr Hanson's legislation would bring more urgency.

Mr Hinchey said the lack of a specific offence caused "confusion in the criminal justice system".

"In modern day social activity the sharing of explicit images is commonplace, more so than we would like to believe, and when those trusts and confidences are betrayed there is significant harm done to the individual," he said.

"Once these images are released publicly they can't be taken back. It's a cause for shame and embarrassment that's often used as a means to bully, harass and abuse people and that is an offence that should be recognised in a court.

"The justice system needs to gear itself to respond quickly to these advances in technology."

A petition was tabled recently in the ACT parliament in March, calling for revenge porn laws.

Canberra's Domestic Violence Crisis Service chief executive Mirjana Wilson said then that women had reported being drugged by their partners and forced into degrading sex, which was recorded, then told if they didn't comply with demands the images would be posted.

Women also said their partners had threatened to share the images if they reported abuse to police.