This article references image-based abuse.
Last night, GLAMOUR returned to parliament to raise awareness of our campaign to introduce a dedicated Image-Based Abuse Law.
The Rt Hon. Kirith Entwistle hosted a parliamentary roundtable in partnership with GLAMOUR and the End Violence Against Women & Girls Coalition (EVAW), which explored each of the five policy asks within our proposed Image-Based Abuse Law. As a starting point, the law must strengthen the criminal law, improve the civil law, prevent image-based abuse through sex education, fund specialist services, and introduce an Online Abuse Commission to hold tech companies accountable for image-based abuse.
A year ago, GLAMOUR hosted a roundtable in parliament about the threat of deepfake abuse. Since then, a lot has changed. Case in point: two successive governments have committed to criminalising the creation of so-called deepfake pornography; two of the biggest deepfake pornography sites have blocked access to UK users; and Google has announced significant improvements to stop people accessing non-consensual deepfake porn in its search results. But we've still got a long way to go.
In 2024, GLAMOUR officially partnered with EVAW, Not Your Porn, Professor Clare McGlynn, and Jodie Campaigns to call for a comprehensive Image-Based Abuse Law.
Jodie, a campaigner and survivor of deepfake abuse, bravely shared her story of being deepfaked by a close friend to petition the government to take image-based abuse seriously. In her op-ed for GLAMOUR, Jodie writes, “I want to live in a world where no woman has to feel the devastation I felt when I discovered my image had been manipulated without my consent. A world where survivors are supported, not shamed. And a world where the laws don’t just reflect the times, they lead them.”
We were delighted to welcome Jodie to last night's event, as well as many more incredible survivors, experts, and politicians to the roundtable, including former GLAMOUR Women of the Year Cally Jane Beech and Georgia Harrison, Baroness Charlotte Owen, Sharon Gaffka, Jess Davies, Ashley James, and Jasmine Johnson.
We also welcomed several feminist legends from the Ending Violence against Women and Girls sector. Notable shoutouts to Sophie Mortimer from the Revenge Porn Helpline, Hera Hussain from Chayn, Madelaine Thomas from Image Angel, Andrea Simon from EVAW (plus the entire team at EVAW), Dan Guinness and Ben Hurst from Beyond Equality, Soma Sara, Sophie Lennox, and Ellie Softley from Everyone's Invited, and many more.
The government has committed to taking action on image-based abuse. In an interview with GLAMOUR, Alex Davies-Jones, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Violence Against Women and Girls at the Ministry of Justice, said, “We see this as a priority. We want to keep women and girls safe wherever they are: school, the workplace, online and offline. This signals our specific intent to do that. We will be legislating for that.”
In 2023, GLAMOUR launched a groundbreaking consent survey, in partnership with Refuge and Rape Crisis, which asked nearly 4000 women about their attitudes towards sexual consent. Of all the findings – which you can read in full here – we learned that 91% of GLAMOUR readers think deepfake technology poses a threat to the safety of women.
GLAMOUR is campaigning for the government to introduce an Image-Based Abuse Bill in partnership with Jodie Campaigns, the End Violence Against Women Coalition, Not Your Porn, and Professor Clare McGlynn.
*Names and some details have been changed to protect victims and survivors' identities and safety.
Revenge Porn Helpline provides advice, guidance and support to victims of intimate image-based abuse over the age of 18 who live in the UK. You can call them on 0345 6000 459.
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
