Intimate Images Legal Advice Project

Stand Informed Legal Advice Services is providing free, brief legal advice to anyone in British Columbia whose intimate images have been shared without their consent as a pilot project. This service is available from August 2024 to March 2025.

How can we help?

Our lawyer provides up to 3 hours of free, confidential legal advice to anyone in British Columbia who has experienced the sharing of their intimate images without their consent or been threatened with having their intimate images shared. Our lawyer will explain your rights and the legal options available to you. If you need more time, an extension of an additional 2 hours may be authorized.

We can also assist you to connect with supports, such as counselling, to help you during this time.

There are no age restrictions to access this service.

To contact Intimate Images Legal Advice:

Call: 604-673-3143 or Toll-free 1-888-685-6222

Email: standinformed@clasbc.net

You can also complete our application for legal services and email it to us. We can also talk to you on the phone for the information we need.

Who qualifies?

This new service is free and available to you if:

  • You live in British Columbia; and
  • Someone has shared or threatened to share your intimate images without your consent.

We may consider the following in deciding whether we are able to provide you with legal advice:

  • Your income;
  • Your ability to obtain assistance from other sources; and
  • The demand for our services affecting our capacity to provide services to you.

You do not need to report to the police to use our services. What you decide to do is completely up to you.

What can you expect from us?

  • After you contact us, our Intake Coordinator will have a short call with you to learn about what happened. You don’t have to provide details to get legal advice. You are welcome to have a support worker, trusted adult, or friend on the call if it will help you feel safe and comfortable. We can also provide an interpreter if English is not your first language, or for ASL interpretation.
  • We will send you a letter to sign that is an agreement between you and our lawyer. This helps keep anything you say to the lawyer confidential. It will take us up to 1 week to send you the letter.
  • After you have signed the letter, our lawyer will reach out to schedule an appointment with you.
  • You may meet the lawyer over the phone, by video, or possibly in person. If English is not your first language, we can provide a free interpreter for all meetings with your lawyer.

Our approach

Our lawyer and staff are trained to take a holistic, trauma-informed approach to helping our clients. This means we understand that what you have experienced is traumatic, and we see you as more than just your legal issue; you are not defined by what happened to you.

We know the idea of talking to a lawyer can feel intimidating. You can talk with our lawyer directly about your situation or have a support worker accompany you. Our lawyer is here to help and support you. We will provide you with advice and you decide what you do and don’t want to do.

Finding additional support

Sometimes it is overwhelming to think about all the options and what you want to do. We are here to help and to connect you with organizations that can provide supports. Some services we can refer you to are:

  • Community-based Victim Services
  • Counselling
  • Health care services
  • Mental health services
  • Support workers

If you are in immediate need of assistance, please call or text VictimLinkBC at 1-800-563-0808 or email VictimLinkBC@bc211.ca. Crisis support, information and referrals are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. www.victimlinkbc.ca

Common Questions about Intimate Images

Intimate images are private images where the person who is in the images expects they will be kept private. Intimate images include:

  • Nude or near-nude selfies, photos, videos, livestreams and digitally altered images and videos (deep fakes).
  • Images taken in a sexual context (e.g. nude or nearly nude selfies or sex-tape), or non-sexual (for example a public or private bathroom)
  • They may or may not show the person’s face or even identify the person.

Yes. It is a crime to take, record or share intimate images and videos of anyone at any age without the person’s permission, knowledge or consent if they thought the intimate images were private when made and they want the images to be kept private. Intimate images are legal if everyone is over 18 years old and consents to take and share the images.

Child pornography laws apply if anyone in an intimate image is under 18. Intimate images of people under 18 years old are legal only when everyone:

  • involved is old enough to give consent;
    • and when everyone in the image
      • consented to the sexual activity in the images;
      • knows that someone is making an intimate image of them; and
      • consents to someone making an intimate image of them.
  • In addition to consent, people under 18 who create the intimate images must keep the images private between them for personal use only and no one can share the image with anyone else.

If you’re not sure whether the intimate images are illegal, please contact us.

Consent is when a person gives permission, or agrees, to do something or take part in a sexual activity, and the person clearly communicates their agreement. Someone can agree or consent to taking and/or sharing intimate images of themselves with another person. When someone agrees to sending the image to one individual, it does not mean they consent to have the image sent to another person. For example, a person could agree take an intimate image of themselves and send it to their partner, but not give permission or consent to having that image forwarded to their partner’s friend(s) or post online.

There’s no consent when:

  • When someone is saying or doing something that shows they do not agree with the sexual activity or having their images being taken or shared
  • Someone is incapable of agreeing to the activity (e.g. intoxicated or unconscious);
  • If someone felt pressured or was bullied to agree because of the other person’s position of power, authority, or trust (e.g. manager to an employee, teacher to a student, coach to an athlete, babysitter);
  • A romantic or sexual partner pressuring, guilt tripping, or coercing the other individual into the activity when the partner has said or done something to show that they do not agree with the sexual activity or having their images being taken or shared; and
  • Someone else cannot give consent for another person.

It is the responsibility of the person who wants to take or share the intimate images to make sure there is consent. A person cannot say they thought they received consent if they:

  • did not take steps to ask the other person(s) involved if they consent;
  • were too intoxicated to understand if the other person(s) involved is consenting; or
  • ignored verbal and non-verbal signals that suggest the person is not consenting.

A person must be at least 16 years old to be able to legally consent, or agree, to sexual activity or sexual touching, or to have their intimate images taken and shared. Sexual activity includes touching or contact for sexual purposes, such as kissing, hugging, fondling, or penetration. Consenting to sexual activity does not mean you are consenting to having your intimate images taken and shared. You can revoke, or take back, your consent, at any time even if you consented in the past to the sexual activity or to have your intimate images taken or shared. Consent must be given at each stage of the sexual interaction including taking and sharing intimate images.

There are exceptions for people under 18:

  • Under 12 years old: In Canada, children under 12 cannot legally consent to sexual activity or contact, including have their intimate images taken and shared, in any situation. It is against the law for anyone to have sexual activity with children under 12 or take their intimate images (including pornography) even if they agree.
  • 12-13 years old: you can consent with someone less than 2 years older than you
  • 14-15 years old: you can consent with someone less than 5 years older than you
  • Under 18: It is not legal for someone over 18 years old who is in a position of authority, power or trust (e.g. teacher, family member, doctor, sports coach, police officer) to have any sexual activity with someone under 18, even if the person under 18 agrees. Someone under 18 cannot legally consent to sexual abuse or exploitation such as pornography or sex work.

All sexual activity or taking and sharing intimate images without consent is illegal, regardless of age.

Examples of intimate images shared without consent:

  • Someone deliberately posts or shares online nude or sexual photos of you without your consent
  • When intimate images are shared by a person to humiliate and cause harm to their former sexual partner (“revenge porn”)
  • Sextortion, a form of blackmail where a person is threatened with their intimate images being shared unless they pay a ransom of some sort (money, new intimate images)
  • Cyberbullying and pressurizing someone to take or share intimate images or videos of themselves
  • Intimate images that were consensually sent to Person A (sexting) but then Person A shares the intimate images without the sender’s consent with others on forums, social media, websites
  • Taking intimate images of a person without their consent and sharing the images in a chat or online without their consent
  • Printing out and distributing hardcopies of intimate images or videos that the person in the images/video is not aware of

Resources:

The Intimate Images Protection Service

Civil Resolution Tribunal

BC211

BC Mental Health Support Line – Call 310-6789

Compass: Navigating non-consensual image sharing

Take it Down (for removing underage images of yourself)

StopNCII (removes and prevents non-consensual images from being shared online)