The government is considering introducing legislation that would make upskirting – taking sexually intrusive photos – illegal in England and Wales.
The Justice Secretary David Lidington told MPs yesterday that he was reviewing the need for laws that prevent the practice of taking secret photographs underneath a person’s clothes without their consent.
The move comes after Gina Martin started an online campaign calling for upskirting to be criminalised after a man took a picture up her skirt at a music festival in London this summer.
Martin approached the police, with the photo, but they told her there was nothing to be done and told the man who took the photo to delete it. The case has since been reopened after public pressure but no charges have yet been brought.
The campaign, which calls for upskirting, also known as creepshots or downblousing, to be a criminal offense prosecutable under the Sexual Offences Act of 2003, has nearly reached its goal of 65,000 signatures.
The review currently under way in the Commons only applies to England and Wales, as upskirting is already illegal in Scotland after a voyeurism offence was introduced to the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009.
There are voyeurism laws currently in place in England and Wales, but they only cover acts that take place in private. Upskirting almost always happens in public, often on buses and trains.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.