Mechanisms of Human Dignity Protection and The Privacy with Respect to Sexting Behavior

Abstract

The technological revolution has had a significant impact on the way people relate and communicate, including sexual relationships.

This has provided new forms of sexual interaction and expression, changing the dynamics of interpersonal relationships, as is the case with sexting. Consequently, such exchange of explicit sexual content has gotten out of control, mainly when the message is disclosed to third parties without the consent of the sender, becoming a significant problem that generates serious consequences, such as loss of privacy, damage to reputation and emotional distress, which legally means a violation of privacy.

In Colombia, the conduct of sexting is not typified in the Penal Code, however, it is addressed by the legislation according to certain determining aspects such as the age of consent, non-consensual disclosure, cyberbullying, child pornography, among others. In addition to this, the legal system created two laws to regulate this conduct through the violation of privacy and computer crimes, they are Law 1581 of 2012 and Law 1273 of 2009. Recently, Bill 241 of 2022 has been under debate, as an initiative that reflects the need to adapt legislation to the digital age and address the emerging problems of it.

This seeks to amend the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure to regulate issues of violation of privacy using information and communication technologies, as well as the crime of digital gender-based violence.