• Anastasia Powell
• Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault

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30 November 2009National research literature and public debate regarding the capture and distribution of unauthorised visual images has recently been increasing. Such debate has focused on these unauthorised images being voyeuristic or an invasion of privacy (e.g., images captured on mobile phones in locker rooms); being used for cyber bullying (e.g., distributed widely via email or mobile phones to harass or embarrass the subject of an image); or being inappropriate images of children (e.g., the debate regarding the use of digital cameras at public pools and playgrounds).

Of interest, however, is the comparative silence when the content of such images is of a sexual assault. In particular, there is little acknowledgement of the additional harm that the recording and distribution of instantly pervasive digital images of a sexual assault causes to the victim/survivor through the continued violation of their sexual autonomy. Mainstream media and indeed legal discussions have also largely taken place at a relative distance from the broader issues of gender and sexual violence. However recent cases of sexual assaults of young women and girls being recorded and distributed have undeniably blurred any neat categorisation between so-called minor privacy and voyeurism related offences on the one hand, and sexual violence offences on another.

This article argues that there is a direct link between existing debates about unauthorised visual images and the issue of sexual assault.