A 25-year-old man became the first person to be charged for violating a section of the Electronic Crimes Act when he appeared in court In Grenada earlier this week.
Yurber Phillip was charged with violation of privacy under the act based on allegations that he published nude photos of a woman on a social media website.
Police confirmed that the female and Phillip had an intimate relationship.
Section 10 (1) of the Electronic Crimes Act states that, “a person who, knowingly or without lawful excuse or justification, captures, publishes or transmits the image of a private area of a person without his or her consent, under circumstances violating the privacy of that person, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding two hundred thousand dollars or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding three years or to both.”
The legislation was approved in both houses of Parliament in 2013 as one in five electronic laws aimed at providing guidance to the police and the judiciary to deal with criminal matters committed using electronic and technological devices.
Assistant Commissioner of Police Trevor Modeste said the Electronic Crimes Act is designed to protect the rights and privacy of individuals in this increasingly technological era.
Modeste said the provisions of the legislation are clear and wants persons to become familiar with these provisions.
“Ignorance of the law will not be accepted as an excuse. Violation of privacy is one of the offences identified in the legislation and as such, citizens must refrain from violating the rights of other persons when they record and share images of others, specifically images that depict an individual’s private area,” he said while explaining that the law refers to the genitals, whether naked or covered by undergarments as the pubic area, the buttocks or the female breast.
Phillip returns to court on October 5.
