Sexting and the law in Canada

Abstract

The author discusses the current state of Canadian legal approaches to sexting, and the conceptual difficulties that continue to trouble the search for appropriate legal responses to malicious forms of sexting. By examining the underlying justifications for existing and proposed criminal offences – child pornography and non-consensual distribution of intimate images – as well as the wrongs that undergird private law causes of action like "publication of private facts" and "intentional infliction of emotional distress," the author aims to clarify what sorts of acts of sexting are or should be considered wrongful in a legal sense. Clarifying the wrongs at issue also serves to clarify the rights of victims at issue when sexting is used to inflict harm on another person: namely, that we all have a right to both protection from sexual victimization and from undue interference with sexual expression.