Singapore makes it illegal to send unwanted nudes
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Singapore has become one of the first countries to outlaw the sending of unsolicited lewd photos, or "cyber flashing," as governments and companies around the world seek to curb new forms of harassment enabled by technology.
The city state passed a bill on Monday that makes unwanted sexual exposure through images a crime punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine.
While public nudity is considered illegal in many jurisdictions, few laws exist that address the use of technology, such as Apple's AirDrop, to beam unwanted nudes to strangers.
A YouGov poll conducted in 2017 suggests that 41% of women between the ages of 18 and 36 have received an unwanted "dick pic."
New York and Texas have proposed legislation criminalizing the distribution of unsolicited lewd images. And internet companies have implemented new measures to prevent their users from being flashed.
Dating app Bumble is planning to implement a feature to automatically detect lewd images and warn recipients before they open them.
Internet users have petitioned Facebook to ban the sending of unsolicited sexual photos.
Under Singapore's new legislation, a person is guilty of sexual exposure if they send a photo of genitals (their own or other people's) to someone without the recipient's consent and causing humiliation or distress.
If the recipients are younger than 14 years of age, the offender can be sentenced to up to two years in prison and be subject to caning.
The country created new sexual offenses to "provide proper framing for such offenses and adequate punishments," Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam, Singapore's minister for home affairs and minister for law, said on Monday.
The new measures are part of an overhaul of Singapore's 150-year-old penal code.
The country also joined several other countries in banning "revenge porn," the sharing of intimate photos or videos of ex-partners without their permission.
This story originally appeared on Inkstone, a daily multimedia digest of China-focused news and features. Like what you see? Sign up for our newsletter, download our app, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
www.msn.com
Singapore has become one of the first countries to outlaw the sending of unsolicited lewd photos, or "cyber flashing," as governments and companies around the world seek to curb new forms of harassment enabled by technology.
The city state passed a bill on Monday that makes unwanted sexual exposure through images a crime punishable by up to a year in prison and a fine.
While public nudity is considered illegal in many jurisdictions, few laws exist that address the use of technology, such as Apple's AirDrop, to beam unwanted nudes to strangers.
A YouGov poll conducted in 2017 suggests that 41% of women between the ages of 18 and 36 have received an unwanted "dick pic."
New York and Texas have proposed legislation criminalizing the distribution of unsolicited lewd images. And internet companies have implemented new measures to prevent their users from being flashed.
Dating app Bumble is planning to implement a feature to automatically detect lewd images and warn recipients before they open them.
Internet users have petitioned Facebook to ban the sending of unsolicited sexual photos.
Under Singapore's new legislation, a person is guilty of sexual exposure if they send a photo of genitals (their own or other people's) to someone without the recipient's consent and causing humiliation or distress.
If the recipients are younger than 14 years of age, the offender can be sentenced to up to two years in prison and be subject to caning.
The country created new sexual offenses to "provide proper framing for such offenses and adequate punishments," Kasiviswanathan Shanmugam, Singapore's minister for home affairs and minister for law, said on Monday.
The new measures are part of an overhaul of Singapore's 150-year-old penal code.
The country also joined several other countries in banning "revenge porn," the sharing of intimate photos or videos of ex-partners without their permission.
This story originally appeared on Inkstone, a daily multimedia digest of China-focused news and features. Like what you see? Sign up for our newsletter, download our app, or follow us on Twitter and Facebook.
Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
