The current state government is looking to shake things up in Victoria by making a lot of changes and high on that list of changes is apparently banning sexting. Most people are probably aware the art of sexting has significantly increased over the past four years specifically among Generation Y with new statistics and surveys from Universities showing sexting has quadrupled and people under the age of twenty contribute the most to the growing trend. Sexting is described by young people as a new way of courting and it’s not uncommon for them to send naked pictures of themselves to another person before they are in a committed relationship with them or met them. Like most things sexting doesn’t come without consequences though and there is no guarantee the images won’t end up in the hands of other people and even on the internet for everybody to see as evident of the recent celebrity hacking.

There have been a number of very recent cases here in Australia where sexually explicit images have been sent to people without the consent of the owner of the image which is one of the main reasons for the push for sexting to be banned and among those cases have been images of minors (under the age of 18) being sent to adults and people using the images as a form of blackmail to force members of the opposite sex into having sex with them or paying them a lot of money. Consent or no consent, it is seen as a form of child pornography under Victorian laws for a person over the age of 18 to have or to send sexually explicit images of a person under the age of 18 and is an offence that leads to jail time as seen last year with a case where a 16 year old girl was sending images of herself to a 22 year old man and the 22 year old man ended up being sentenced to 10 years in jail after her parents found out.

Under new Victorian laws that were passed on the 2nd of November 2014 it is now also an offence to send sexually explicit sext messages of an adult (18 and over) to others if they do not agree with that image’s distribution and the penalty for this offence is two years jail time. These laws were passed in the Parliament of Victoria without question and the next set of laws which are strongly being pushed for by many people in positions of power if passed could now see adults who choose to take sexually explicit images of themselves and distribute them over mobile charged with an offence which will lead to 2 years jail time.

What are your thoughts on these laws? My Wife and I have never done sexting and I don’t even text and people who know me know to ring me and talk to me or come over because I am not willing to waste my time playing with tiny buttons but I don’t have a problem with people who choose to do it and I think there are more important things the Victorian government should be focusing on such as alcohol related violence which at an all-time high.