Intimate Images Shared Without Consent: The Law in England, Wales and Scotland and How to Get Them Removed

Trust builds quickly in online dating, and sometimes that includes exchanging private photos or videos. When such material is shared beyond the person it was sent to, or when someone threatens to share it, the law now treats this as a criminal matter in every part of Great Britain, though the provisions differ. This guide sets out the offences in England and Wales and in Scotland, and how a free tool can help block the spread of images. Northern Ireland has separate law, which is not covered.

England and Wales: section 66B of the Sexual Offences Act 2003

Section 66B was inserted by the Online Safety Act 2023 and came into force on 31 January 2024. It creates four offences involving a photograph or film that shows, or appears to show, another person in an intimate state:

Sharing without consent: intentionally sharing the image where the person does not consent and the sharer does not reasonably believe they consent.
Sharing to cause harm: sharing with the intention of causing the person alarm, distress or humiliation, where they do not consent.
Sharing for sexual gratification: sharing so that the sharer or another person obtains sexual gratification, where the person does not consent and the sharer does not reasonably believe they do.
Threatening to share: threatening to share such an image, either intending that the person or someone who knows them will fear the threat will be carried out, or being reckless as to whether they will.

The section says that “consent” includes general consent covering the particular act of sharing as well as specific consent, and that whether a belief in consent is reasonable is judged on all the circumstances, including any steps taken to find out whether the person consents. The offences are subject to exemptions in section 66C. For a threat charge, prosecutors do not need to prove that the image exists.

England and Wales: penalties

Under section 66B, simply sharing without consent is a summary offence, punishable by imprisonment up to the maximum term for summary offences or a fine, or both. A person has a defence to that offence if they can prove a reasonable excuse for sharing. The other three offences, sharing to cause alarm, distress or humiliation, sharing for sexual gratification and threatening to share, carry up to two years’ imprisonment on conviction on indictment, or lesser penalties in a magistrates’ court. If a court or jury acquits on the harm or gratification offences, it can still convict for the base offence.

Scotland: section 2 of the Abusive Behaviour and Sexual Harm (Scotland) Act 2016

Scotland has its own offence, in force since 3 July 2017. A person commits it if they disclose, or threaten to disclose, a photograph or film that shows, or appears to show, another person in an intimate situation, where they intend to cause fear, alarm or distress or are reckless as to whether it will be caused, and where the image has not previously been disclosed to the public by that person or with their consent. “Disclosed” covers giving, showing or making available the image, or data capable of being converted into it, to anyone other than the person shown.

The Act provides defences, including that the person consented to the disclosure, that the accused reasonably believed they consented, that disclosure was reasonably believed necessary for preventing, detecting, investigating or prosecuting crime, or that it was reasonably believed to be in the public interest. On summary conviction the maximum is 12 months’ imprisonment or a fine up to the statutory maximum, or both; on indictment, up to five years’ imprisonment or a fine, or both.

Getting images removed: StopNCII.org

StopNCII.org is a free tool for adults aged 18 or over, operated by the Revenge Porn Helpline, which is part of the charity SWGfL. To use it, the image must be of you, you must have access to it, it must be intimate in nature (nude or sexual) and you must be over 18 in the image. The process works like this:

You select the image or video on your device.
The tool generates a hash, a digital fingerprint, on your device. The hash is sent, but the image or video is not shared and stays on your device.
You receive a case number and PIN to check your case, which cannot be recovered if lost.
Participating platforms look for matches to the hash and remove matching images if they breach their intimate image abuse policy.
StopNCII.org periodically continues to look for matches on those platforms, and you can check progress or withdraw the case at any time.

The service is clear about its limits: it cannot remove images from the whole internet, only from the participating platforms on its partners page. People under 18 in the images are directed to a similar tool called Take It Down, operated by NCMEC.

Help from the Revenge Porn Helpline

The Revenge Porn Helpline says it can support only adults living in the UK. Its page states the helpline is open from 10:00 to 16:00 Monday to Friday, excluding bank holidays. Anyone facing a threat to share images, rather than actual sharing, is covered by the threat offences in both England and Wales and Scotland described above.

Frequently asked questions

Does it matter if the image was sent to the sharer voluntarily?

The offences turn on the consent of the person shown to the sharing, not on how the sharer obtained the image. In England and Wales, consent can be general or specific.

Is threatening to share the same as sharing?

Both countries treat threats as offences in their own right, and in England and Wales it is not necessary to prove that the image exists.

The bottom line

Sharing or threatening to share intimate images without consent is a crime in England and Wales under section 66B of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and in Scotland under section 2 of the 2016 Act, with maximum penalties that reach two years and five years respectively on indictment. StopNCII.org offers a free way to help block images on participating platforms, and the Revenge Porn Helpline supports adults in the UK.