California has enacted a first-of-its-kind state law criminalizing “revenge porn” – the distribution of private, explicit photos of other people on the Internet, usually by ex-lovers or spouses, to humiliate them.

California already has a law that makes it a crime to take sexually explicit photos of another person without his or her consent. The new revenge porn law extends that crime to anyone who takes nude pictures of another person with the understanding that those images are to remain private but subsequently disseminates the images without permission, reports Duane Morris.

An activist for the new law called it “an encouraging first step” – but said it fails to criminalise the distribution of self-taken photos, or “selfies,” that were shared willingly with spouses or partners but later posted online without the subject’s consent, Reuters reports.