Miami-Dade’s chapter of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers (MDFAWL) has undertaken significant legislative efforts to assist in outlawing non-consensual pornography.
Often called “revenge porn,” non-consensual pornography is the dissemination of sexually explicit images on the internet, among other places, against the will of those depicted.
Victims of domestic violence are often threatened with these images as a means to keep the victims in abusive relationships. Human traffickers use the threat of publicizing videos of girls and women that were filmed under threats of violence as a means of keeping the victims from going to the authorities. Some of these images were at one time voluntarily provided among consenting adults, but were later posted to websites which host “revenge porn.” There have been suicides, loss of jobs and sexual assaults as a result. There are currently no laws in Florida which explicitly outlaw this.
Miami-Dade FAWL has teamed up with the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (CCRI), a non-profit organization that seeks to help victims of cyber harassment through both a legal and educational response. CCRI engages in advocacy work through the development of individual campaigns targeted at specific cyber harassment issues, like revenge porn. CCRI was founded by its current President and Executive Director, Dr. Holly Jacobs, who was a victim of revenge porn.
Professor Mary Anne Franks, an Associate Professor of Law at the University of Miami School of Law and Vice President of CCRI has been working tirelessly on drafting model legislation for the State of Florida, which has passed in several other states. Miami-Dade FAWL is committed to working with Professor Franks and with CCRI to get legislation passed in Florida, and even reached out to former Mattie Belle Davis Award recipient and State Attorney Kathy Fernandez Rundle for help. Ms. Rundle has been working on a state-wide basis with legislators and community leaders to ensure that this bill is passed during the upcoming 2014-2015 legislative session. Miami Beach City Commissioner Michael Grieco and Miami-Dade FAWL Director Elisa D’Amico worked with Professor Franks to get a City of Miami Beach Resolution passed supporting legislative efforts to outlaw non-consensual pornography.
Miami-Dade FAWL is working side-by-side with The Women’s Fund and is putting together a formal program to educate the judiciary and State Attorneys’ Office, so that judges and prosecutors can be on the lookout for signs that revenge pornography may be a factor to consider in a case.
Click HERE to watch a clip from the City Commission Meeting, where Professor Franks discusses this resolution in front of the Miami Beach City Commission.
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Media Contact: Brendalyn Edwards, pr@mdfawl.org
Miami-Dade FAWL is a volunteer bar association dedicated to actively promoting the advancement of women in the legal profession, expanding the leadership role of its members in the community at large, and promoting women’s rights. For more information about Miami-Dade FAWL, its officers, directors or programs, visit www.mdfawl.org.