Victims of revenge porn in California have more time to report offenses following Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature on a state Senate bill sponsored by the Alameda County district attorney.
Senate Bill 23 changes the statute of limitations for “revenge porn” cases, officially known as invasion of privacy cases, to one year from the discovery of the posting rather than one year from the posting itself.
SB 23 was authored by state Sen. Susan Rubio, D-Baldwin Park. It goes into effect Jan. 1. Newsom signed the bill last week.
“The posting of intimate or private photos and videos without consent is not only invasive, and turning increasingly common, but a form of image-based sexual abuse,” Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said in a statement.
Perpetrators of revenge porn are posting private or intimate photos online without their victim’s consent. Prosecutors said that pictures may have been consented to during a romantic relationship, but consent was not given to their electronic distribution. They are posted online typically to shame, intimidate, harass or embarrass the victim.
“Perpetrators of domestic violence sometimes use the release of private, intimate images as another tool of coercive control,” Rubio said in a statement. “It’s an attempt to shame and intimidate the victim, with the plan to provoke long-lasting trauma in their personal and professional lives.”