Flirting Over Email Or Text In Scotland Could Land You In Jail
from the that-doesn't-seem-right dept
It appears some Scottish politicians are putting forth a bill that could put people in jail for up to 10 years for sending a text or email with "sexual content." The goal of the bill is to discourage sexual harassment over email or text messaging -- but it appears to be worded quite broadly. The bill defines the crime as "committed if someone sends an unsolicited text message to someone else which a court finds was designed to give the sender sexual gratification or to humiliate, distress or alarm the receiver." How the court determines what gives the sender "sexual gratification" isn't entirely clear. Does a flirty email count? You can also run afoul of the law by "causing a person to see or hear an indecent communication." Forgot that NSFW tag? You might be in trouble. While you can understand the desire to cut down on harassing messages, this law seems problematic as worded.
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Filed Under: criminal, email, harassment, scotland, text
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Being a Database Guy...
The bill defines the crime as "committed if someone sends an unsolicited text message to someone else which a court finds was designed to give the sender sexual gratification or to humiliate, distress or alarm the receiver."
I think the or above should be an and. You should need to meet both criteria to land in jail (or maybe just the second part about causing humiliation, distress or alarm, should be sufficient)
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sexual gratification
Wink wink nudge nudge.....
Some pervert would find anything sexual gratification - lets hope they are not going get into a position of power!
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Re: sexual gratification
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Re: Re: sexual gratification
Who do I report this to, you perverts and being all up in tight spaces just make me sick.
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You have to wonder to yourself, are these politicians trying to stir up a revolution or are they really this stupid?
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Re:
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Hmm...what is really going on
Not realistic I know but just throwing it out there.
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Speech and freedom
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we need more laws...
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Gilbert and Sullivan
Am I the only one who immediately thought of The Mikado on reading that headline?
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Tacitus
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Just use TxtML
[/strictly platonic]
[/testing the waters]
[/legally drunk]
[/wait you're not...!]
[/auto-fwd virus]
[/Tourette's]
[/completely culpable idiot]
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sender?
Should that not be receiver?
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"For the purposes of this section, a communication or activity is sexual in any case if a reasonable person would, in all the circumstances of the case, consider it to be sexual"
Fun flirting between consenting adults isnt an issue here - its a matter of recognising that situations have arisen where harrasment has taken place via email/text and needs to be recognised and victims protected. The explanatory notes to the bill also make it clear that "the offence is only committed where the victim did not consent to the activity and the perpetator had no reasonable belief that the victim consented".
The bill and its explanatory notes can be downloaded on the scottish parliament website http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/s3/bills/11-sexualOffences/index.htm
If you send a random email or text which can be reasonably regarded as being sexual in its content, without the recipient's permission - if they feel harrassed/threatened or humiliated by that, they have a right to do something about it. If yr sending content to those who you know would be offended by it, or to deliberately cause further distress to those who are already distressed by your actions, or dont know/dont care cos you havent bothered to do the courtesy of asking them - its yr own fault.
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Who's Job Is It???
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