In a previous blog post, you learned about revenge porn and how Texas has recently passed a bill to prevent this tactic from being used to sexually harass you in the workplace or as a citizen outside work. Knowing the laws in Texas is important, but what if you work in another state as a representative of your company? In that case, you need to have an idea of where it could be legal or not.
Starting in 2013, growing concerns about the use of revenge porn began emerging through movements to criminalize the acts. At the current time, April 2015, there are only 13 states that have passed laws to specifically ban this kind of sexual harassment, and Texas is one of them. Others include New Jersey and Alaska. Several other states have had bills introduced for review, but the laws have not yet been passed. These states include New Mexico, Illinois, Georgia, Pennsylvania and others.
If revenge porn isn’t seen as a crime in a state where you’re working away from Texas, there are potentially fewer options for you if you have to have the case tried in that state against another company’s workers or a coworker. For instance, it can be harder to get the images taken down off websites, and it can mean that alleged criminals can get away since there is no link to the victim or law that can result in cause to search their homes or computers.
Also interesting is the fact that while internet revenge porn is illegal in some places, the sites that allow the images are not doing anything illegal by allowing the uploads. As long as they are responsible in removing those images, social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and others may be able to avoid punishment for what users do.
Source: The New Republic, “Is Revenge Porn Legal in Your State?,” Rebecca Leber, accessed April. 22, 2015