Revenge porn law to cover men as well

A total of 65 cases of revenge porn have been reported in the last five year, 17 of which involved men. Police warned social media users on Wednesday to beware of people using the promise of online sex, often with fake profiles, to extort money.

The cyber-crime office said it has received complaints from people who fell victim to what is referred to as ‘sextortion’. The perpetrators use Facebook or Instagram to approach their victims who are often men, police said.

The user receives a ‘friend request’ from an attractive woman, who then communicates with him through chat, and proposes a video call in which they would both appear in the nude. After this, the user receives a message informing him that he had been recorded and he must pay up or else the video would be posted online. Many of the victims of the ‘sextortionists’, according to the police were teenage boys.

Police advised people not to respond to such requests. Victims of ‘sextortion’ should report suspicious profiles to the social media platform and block it. They also urged people not to pay anything because the sextortionists would keep asking for more money.

A law passed in 2021 made revenge porn against women a criminal offence and is punishable by up to 16 years in prison. The law, however, has no provision for revenge porn against men and the Justice Minister Stefi Drakou has written to the House of Representative, asking for its amendment so it includes men. There had been 17 cases of men being the target of revenge porn in the last five years, Drakou informed the House.

Drakou also highlighted another weakness of the 2021 law. It has no provision that would oblige digital platforms and telecommunications providers to delete products of revenge porn.

Despite the absence of such a provision from the law, the police would still send a request for the deleting of the offensive material to the service providers and there was always a positive response from providers, said Drakou in her letter.

Amendment of the law will address both deficiencies.