By Scott Smyers
Revenge Porn is self explanatory. When two consenting adults (Persons A and B) take photos or video of themselves nude for their own private use, but later, Person A shares or distributes the images or video without consent of Person B. As you can imagine, distributing such images or video online to exact revenge against a former lover or spouse could be very damaging to a person’s reputation and career. Typically, Person A is an ex-boyfriend or ex-husband and Person B is his former girlfriend or wife, but the scenario can be any combination of partners from various combinations of relationships (male-male, female-female, etc.). If Person A and/or B is under 18, it gets more complicated but the same principles apply.
Thanks to Senator Jamie Eldridge, Revenge Porn is NOT illegal in Massachusetts. House Bill 4498 was passed unanimously by the House in the Spring of 2022 and the Governor committed to signing it, but it hasn’t proceeded to the Senate. Because of Senator Eldridge’s position on the Judiciary Committee, he is the gatekeeper for any laws passing from the House to the Senate. Therefore, Eldridge has been the focus of several stories highlighting his lack of interest in this topic and his active role in blocking House Bill 4498 from being introduced to the Senate. Massachusetts is only one of two states in the USA that does NOT have any protection for victims of Revenge Porn.
There is more to the story that has been summarized well by others. For example, please review the Boston Globe and Boston Herald (paywalls may apply) and Dan Rea’s NightSide podcast (free). The podcast is very informative because Dan interviews the author of the article in the Boston Herald (Rasheed Walters) AND a victim of Revenge Porn from Massachusetts who was 15 when this happened to her. Now this victim is 30 and trying her best to help other current and future victims. Her story is awful.
As reported by Walters and Rea in late December, the 2022 legislative session came to a close in early January. After the session ends, any laws not passed need to start over again due to the changing of representatives and senators. Therefore, if Eldridge could delay a little longer, Bill 4498 would die.
After hearing this information, I requested a conversation with Senator Eldridge and on December 28 we spoke on the phone. I strongly encouraged him to move the Bill forward. He claimed there just was not any interest in this topic among his fellow State Senators. I asked if he had made any effort to solicit opinions from his fellow senators. He tried to change the subject and would not answer. I asked if he had researched how the other 48 states had approached the issue, including the nuances of punishment. He agreed it was a good idea but had not done any research and again tried to redirect our conversation. I explained to the Senator that his reasoning was flawed: innocent victims go without justice because the perpetrators would possibly be punished with a fine (maximum of $10,000) and relatively short jail sentence (maximum of 2 1/2 years). The word maximum obviously indicates the punishment could be much less.
To my surprise, the day after my call with the Senator, Senate Bill 3167 appeared on the State website. I thought maybe I made a difference! But no, most of the revisions focused on protecting defendants who were under 18. The new version goes on and on about making sure underage Defendants are properly protected. OK, I get it and I agree that it makes sense to punish non-adult offenders differently considering their individual situation, but to scrap the entire effort makes me suspect there is more to the Senator’s lack of reasoning. Furthermore, the Senate Bill seems to contain the exact same fines and sentences for adults, which I understood was his major concern. That doesn’t make much sense if he’s motivated by so called criminal justice reform, but the Senator seems naturally oriented to bad reasoning.
I have never been a supporter of Senator Eldridge, especially after his coordinated effort to interfere with the 2022 election. However, even I had a hard time believing his judgement was so poor and his priorities so warped that he was in favor of protecting creeps who distribute Revenge Porn in order to ruin the social lives and damage the careers of their former spouses or partners. It is time the voters of Acton and Boxborough hold Senator Eldridge accountable (no money, no signs, no votes) for his lack of empathy towards current and future victims of Revenge Porn.
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