Individuals who send or share nude pictures and sex tapes
risk going to jail for up to five years if the recently gazetted Cyber Security
and Data Protection Bill becomes law.
Nudes and sex tapes have been part and parcel of
Zimbabweans’ entertainment over the years. People have been sharing nudes and
sex tapes of ordinary citizens, university students and celebrities.
People like socialite Pokello Nare, musicians Stunner and
Sebastian Magacha, former Miss Zimbabwe Thabiso Phiri and radio and television
personality Tinopona “Tin Tin” Katsande have been victims of sex tapes and
nudes being leaked to social media. The leaking of explicit content might have
elevated people like Pokello to stardom but the result has not been the same
for Phiri who was instantly dethroned as Miss Zimbabwe and Tin Tin who was
fired from her job at ZiFM Stereo.
Research has shown that some of the leaked sexual explicit
material is in fact revenge porn by victims’ disgruntled partners. In a bid to
protect citizens, the new Bill seeks to jail individuals that leak or publish
nude pictures on social media/online.
An individual who leaks or publishes intimate images
without consent risks being jailed up to five years if the bill that was
gazetted on Friday becomes law.
“Any person who unlawfully and intentionally by means of a
computer or information system makes available, broadcasts or distributes a
data message containing any intimate image of an identifiable person without
the consent of the person concerned causing the humiliation or embarrassment of
such person shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding
level 10, or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding five years or to both
such fine and such imprisonment,” read the bill.
In Clause 164E which deals with the transmission of data
with intimate images without consent, the bill states that “intimate image”
means a visual depiction of a person made by any means in which the person is
nude, the genitalia or naked female breasts are exposed or sexual acts are
displayed.
Activists have said the leaking of sex tapes and nudes is a
form of Gender Based Violence and have been calling on Government to come up
with stiffer penalties to deter would be offenders. Chronicle
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