Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-10-19.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, if he will take steps to prevent Snapchat images being made public without the consent of the image owner.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Under UK copyright law, it would be unlawful for a Snapchat user to copy an image and make it available to the public without the consent of the image owner. The image owner would be able to sue anyone who does this for copyright infringement.

Snapchat photos are automatically deleted after 10 seconds. The Snapchat Privacy Policy states that if Snapchat is able to detect that a recipient has taken a screenshot of an image, they will try to inform the original poster. However, Snapchat advises users to avoid sending messages which they would not want to be saved or shared.

The disclosure of private sexual photographs or films without the consent of an individual who appears in them and with intent to cause that individual distress, is an offence under Section 33 of the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015. Those convicted could face a maximum sentence of two years in prison.