Members of the General Assembly are considering a bill that would increase penalties for revenge porn.
Revenge porn is already illegal in Virginia, although members of the General Assembly are considering legislation that would increase penalties and extend the statute of limitations. Republican Senator Mark Peake of Lynchburg worries about the political implications.
"Let's say hypothetically speaking that the person who had put that out into the stream of public on the internet decided to run for political office and had just been putting it out on the internet six months to a year before they decided to run for political office," he says.
Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell says political speech remains protected.
"That scenario has nothing to do with this bill, and I'm not clear why it's being brought into it," Surovell says. "But that's not what this bill is about. This bill is about people who share pictures of each other, which some people like to do I guess, and then they like to spread it around because they’re mad at somebody after a relationship goes bad. That's what this is focused on. That's it."
The bill passed the Senate with a bipartisan vote, and it's now headed to the House of Delegates.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
