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Sending photos and videos by WhatsApp without permission is a crime

When is the image diffused? What penalties are there for disseminating intimate photos without consent?

Criminal law
Sending photos and videos by WhatsApp without permission is a crime

This is a crime that is part of the Penal Code, specifically those that are against privacy, the right to one's own image.

Article 197 of the legal text regulates the crime of disseminating images or audiovisual recordings to third parties without the authorization of the affected person, saying the following:

“Anyone who, without the authorization of the affected person, disseminates, reveals or transfers to third parties images or audiovisual recordings of the one that they have obtained with their consent will be punished with a prison sentence of three months to one year or a fine of six to twelve months. in an address or in any other place out of the reach of the eyes of third parties, when the disclosure seriously undermines the personal privacy of that person. "

The current role of social networks in our daily lives can make the act of sharing or sending a photo or video seem harmless, thinking about the anonymity of the internet, but it is rather very dangerous. Hasn't it happened to you sometimes that your friend has a photo in which she goes wrong and she tells you not to upload it, but, despite that, you do it, because you do come out right? Well, this is the same only more serious, when in the video someone may appear drunk or in poor condition, or the photos may be of naked people.

It is very easy to exceed the limits of intimacy of others. You must bear in mind that not any type of disclosure is a crime, only that which seriously undermines personal privacy, for example, sexual content.

Normally what happens is that photographs obtained with the consent of the victim are sent.

The Supreme Court condemns for a crime of article 197 of the Penal Code when there has been a forwarding to a third party of a nude photo that the affected person had voluntarily sent to the person who disseminated the images.

The aforementioned Judgment resolves some of the doubts that have been raised in similar controversial cases:

Does this crime reach only in the cases in which, the one who disseminates the images is the one who made the photograph or video?

The resolution understands that no, since the conduct is the dissemination of the images obtained with the consent of the victim in a home or in any other place out of the reach of third parties. Therefore, the perpetrator of the crime may not simply be the one who took the photograph, but also third parties who have it.

Does sending a photograph of a nude expressive of your privacy imply giving up the privacy that it represents in advance?

No, whether the person has left a photograph or has sent the photo taken by the person to another, a waiver of the right to intimacy and privacy that comes from the content of the same is not generated.

When is the image diffused?

It is understood that there is diffusion from the moment the file is sent without the permission of the affected person to one or more people. Nudity is automatically understood as an expression of personal intimacy.

What penalties are there for disseminating intimate photos without consent?

A prison sentence of three months to one year or a fine of six to twelve months.

Likewise, the penalty will be imposed in its upper half when the acts were committed by the spouse or person with a similar affective relationship (regardless of whether there is coexistence or not).

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Criminal law

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