"Revenge porn" is one of those instances where the law lagged behind technology, and people were doing things that seemed like they should be against the law but were not actually against the law.
Revenge porn refers to taking sexually explicit images of a person that were intended to be private and publishing them publicly, typically over the internet. In 2015, in one of the nation's first big revenge porn cases, a Tulsa man was convicted of extortion for running a revenge porn website, in which men would post sexually explicit images of their ex-girlfriends, and the women would be required to pay significant sums of money to have the images removed.
Last year, Governor Mary Fallin signed into law Oklahoma's first "revenge porn" law, which makes illegal the nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images.
Now, a Cleveland County man has become that county's first person to be charged with violating the revenge porn statute. According to reports, Shane Glisson, 36, began harassing his ex-girlfriend after their relationship ended. The woman took out a protective order against him, but he continued to email and text the woman and show up at her house and at her place of employment.
Nearly a year after their relationship ended, Glisson reportedly took a sexually explicit photo the woman gave him for a previous Valentine's Day gift, and he posted it on Facebook, making negative comments about it.
Because of the "nonconsensual dissemination" of the woman's private images, Cleveland County authorities were able to arrest Glisson for violating the revenge porn law.
Cleveland County Undersheriff Rhett Burnett says that while Glisson's case may be their first revenge porn case, it will not be their last: "It is not a joke. It's not a way to get back at an ex or spouse. It is a crime and the Cleveland County Sheriff’s Office, we’re going to prosecute."
A first offense of disseminating private sexual images without consent is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $25,000. Subsequent offenses are felonies.
It is important to keep in mind that this law applies only to the nonconsensual distribution of sexually explicit images of adults 18 and older. Under both state and federal law, sexually explicit images of minors under the age of 18 are considered to be child pornography. The distribution of such images, whether apparently consensual or not, is a felony sex crime. Distribution of child pornography is punishable by up to 20 years in prison and sex offender registration.
Image credit: Pro Juventute
