Sen. Anthony Cannella is taking aim at selfies – of the pornographic variety.
The state senator representing the county in mid-December introduced an updated version of previously approved legislation to combat proliferation of “revenge porn” online – nude pictures or videos posted of someone against the person’s permission with the intent to cause emotional distress. The updated bill would include “selfies,” the term to describe pictures that cell phone users take of themselves.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed a similar bill in October introduced by Cannella, R-Ceres, which would make “revenge porn” a misdemeanor. The new bill, called “Revenge Porn 2.0,” would take aim at those who knowingly distribute pornographic “selfies” without the owners’ consent. The Cyber Civil Rights Initiative, a group that monitors online harassment, estimated in the press release that more than half of “revenge porn” cases involve “selfies.”
“I recognized that more could be done to protect a larger number of victims so I will present new legislation this upcoming session so the law will apply to anyone who distributes revenge porn regardless of who took the picture,” Cannella said in a statement.
Hollister Police Chief David Westrick said the issue isn’t a really big deal for the city but that a few years ago, there were a couple of cases that came up from the school system. It’s changed since then, he said.
“The high schools, and middle schools for that matter, have both done really good jobs at educating their kids about that sort of activity,” he said. “We’ve seen more problems on social media, which is widely known. But the items we’ve seen before, it’s been a few years.”
