Top law officers to examine spy photos

8/8/03
Unscrupulous people who secretly take photos of others and publish them on the Internet will come under the spotlight today when Attorneys General from across Australia meet in Canberra.
Western Australian Attorney General Jim McGinty said the meeting would look at whether changes to criminal law were needed to stop the practice.
Mr McGinty said he was particularly concerned at the potential for children and young people to be exploited.
"Only recently in Victoria, photos of Melbourne schoolboys playing sport appeared on a gay website and photos of a young surf lifesaver were placed on a sports fetish website - yet subsequent police investigations found there was no illegality as the photos were not pornographic," he said.
"The publication caused considerable distress to the young men involved, who had no knowledge of what was being done until their photos appeared on the Internet.
"While it is a relatively untested area of the law, it appears most States would have trouble dealing with this activity because the photos are themselves not indecent.
"The problem rests more with the way they are used, such as placing them on dubious or inappropriate websites."
Mr McGinty said Director of Public Prosecutions Robert Cock QC had advised that existing WA law was incapable of dealing with the problem if it arose in WA, which experience elsewhere suggested was only a matter of time.
"As we learnt with stalking, which was once a similarly new phenomenon for our criminal law, a strong and effective law with criminal sanctions is essential," he said.
"It is clear that some areas of the law are totally out of step with developments in information technology and in my view a national approach is needed.
"There is something particularly sordid and unpleasant about this sort of behaviour, and with developments in mobile phone cameras, the problem will be exacerbated as it becomes even easier to secretly photograph others and send the pictures live online.
"It is a real invasion of privacy that leaves people feeling exploited and degraded and it needs to be stopped before it goes any further."
Attorney General's office: 9220 5000