Revenge porn is criminalised under the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. But is this the right way to describe ‘image-based sexual abuse’? Frances Ridout, who looks after the Legal Advice Centre’s Sharing and Publishing Images to Embarrass (SPITE) project, which helps victims of explicit photo sharing without using revenge porn in its name, said: “When private sexual images are shared without consent, they may not be considered to be pornographic in nature by the person depicted in the photograph. Equally the disclosure of the image can happen for one of a number of reasons, not just for the purpose of revenge. The sharing may be done by a person who does not know the victim. Revenge also has the connotation that the victim has done something wrong for which the perpetrator is seeking retribution. This is misleading and can contribute to a culture of victim blaming.”