Seán Canney
Question:542. Deputy Seán Canney asked the Minister for Justice if she has plans to bring forward legislation to deal with cyber flashing and online harassment; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [6490/22]
View answerTuesday, 8 February 2022
Questions (542)
Written answers
Flashing is a criminal offence under the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017. While flashing is a term we are all familiar with, the concept of cyberflashing is relatively new.
There are, however, a number of offences already on the statute book which criminalise behaviours that can be described as cyberflashing. The existing offence for flashing, contained in section 45(1) of the Sexual Offences Act 2017 is not restricted to physical places and would also apply in the online context.
In addition, it is an offence under section 45(3) of that Act to intentionally engage in offensive conduct of a sexual nature. “Offensive conduct of a sexual nature” means any behaviour of a sexual nature which, having regard to all the circumstances, is likely to cause fear, distress or alarm to any person who is, or might reasonably be expected to be, aware of any such behaviour.
A person convicted of an offence under either of these provisions would be liable on summary conviction to a fine or up to six months imprisonment, or on indictment for up to two years imprisonment.
If such images are sent by phone or text message it may constitute an offence under Section 13(1)(a) of the Post Office (Amendment) Act 1951 (as amended by the Communications Regulation (Amendment) Act 2007) which makes it an offence to send by telephone (including by text message) any message that is grossly offensive, or is indecent, obscene or menacing.
Coco’s Law, otherwise known as the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020, contains an offence of distributing, publishing, or sending a grossly offensive communication with intent to cause harm. Under this offence, harm is caused by seriously interfering with a person’s peace and privacy or by causing alarm or distress to the person. The penalty for such a conviction can be an unlimited fine or up to two years imprisonment.
In addition to the above offences, persistent cyberflashing may amount to harassment within the meaning of section 10 of the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997, which carries a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison.
An amendment introduced by the Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 broadens the scope of the offence of harassment to include persistent communication about a person, sometime referred to as indirect harassment. It also increases the maximum penalty for harassment from 7 years’ to 10 years’ to reflect the harm caused by the most serious forms of harassment.
The new legislation is intentionally silent about the types of technology that may be used to commit the offences so as to cover all forms of online and offline communications that cause harm to a victim.
In the context of the Deputy’s question, it is important to acknowledge the work of my colleague, Minister Catherine Martin, T.D., who has recently published and initiated in Seanad Éireann, the Online Safety and Media Regulation Bill. The Bill will establish a Media Commission to replace the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland and provide for the appointment of an Online Safety Commissioner who will oversee the establishment of a regulatory framework for online safety.
Under the framework, the Online Safety Commissioner will devise online safety codes requiring certain designated online services to operate appropriate systems and processes to minimise the availability of some of the most serious forms of harmful online content. Such content will include certain criminal material, including a number of relevant offences from the Criminal Law (Sexual Offences) Act 2017, Harassment, Harmful Communications and Related Offences Act 2020 and the Non-Fatal Offences against the Person Act 1997.