The government is amending its Online Safety Bill to make it easier to prosecute perpetrators who share intimate images of people online without their consent.

It said that victims of revenge porn will be better protected under the new rules, which will no longer require the prosecution to prove that offenders shared sexual images or films to “cause distress”, with abusers who break the law facing up to six months in prison.

Where a perpetrator is proved to cause distress, alarm or humiliation, or to obtain sexual gratification, they could face a two-year prison term.

The government said that those found guilty of sharing images for sexual gratification could also be placed on the sex offender register.

The move follows the campaign of ex-Towie and Love Island star Georgia Harrison, who was the victim of image based abuse at the hands of her former partner Stephen Bear.

"The reforms to the law that has been passed today are going to go down in history as a turning point for generations to come and will bring peace of mind to so many victims who have reached out to me whilst also giving future victim’s the justice they deserve," said Harrison.

Under the new rules, sharing of ‘deep fake’ intimate images – explicit images or videos which have been digitally manipulated to look like someone else – will also be criminalised for the first time.

Deepfakes often involve the use of editing software to create fake images of a person without their consent and can be pornographic in nature.

Figures shared by the government show that this type of image has been increasing in recent years with a website that virtually strips women naked receiving 38 million hits in the first eight months of 2021.

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