House panel tries to blend 2 revenge porn bills
OLYMPIA – “Revenge porn” – what some call the posting intimate photos of a former partner online without their permission – may be a bigger problem than legislators realized as they look at ways to protect its victims.
University of Washington law students told the House Public Safety Committee that last month they found 179 Washington residents were posted last on a revenge porn website where intimate, once-private photos can be uploaded by former partners. Along with the photos are a victim’s name, hometown, and sometimes a driver’s license or Social Security number, Charlotte Lunday, a law student, said.
Tracking the source of that harassment is difficult, King County Deputy Prosecutor Gary Ernsdorff told the committee House Public Safety Committee were told Friday. That website is based in Amsterdam and money the victims pay to get the pictures taken down go to the Philippines.
The motivation isn't always clear, a victim identified as Kim L. said. Photos of her were posted in December 2013, and were spread all over the world to her friends through Facebook and other social media sites. It was months before investigators discovered they came from a computer technician who stole them while working on her computer two years earlier.
Technically it wasn’t revenge porn, Ernsdorff said, because the poster didn’t do it to get revenge. The investigation revealed the technician, Jeremy Walters, posted pictures of three other women as well.
“We don’t know why he did it except just to be cruel,” Ernsdorff said. Walters was sentenced to a year in prison last December for cyberstalking.
While some legislators said the first instance of revenge porn should be a misdemeanor, especially for minors, Kim argued a more serious felony charge should be an option. Stealing a car is a felony, she said, and those victims can have their car replaced in time.
“I am never made whole again,” she said, because on the internet such images “are forever.”
The committee is trying to blend two similar bills that would make posting such images a separate crime with specific penalties. Chairman Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, urged supporters to work together and produce a single bill before next Friday, which is the deadline for the committee to approve such legislation.
