In response to the growing issue of the sharing of intimate images the across the youth, the Queen Mary Legal Advice Centre delivers workshops in various schools across London to empower and educate young people in this area.
The SPITE project is a public legal education/ street law project about image based sexual abuse. SPITE is an acronym that means Sharing and Publishing Images to Embarrass. The aim of this project is to encourage and facilitate important discussions around this area of law and help work with school students to understand the law and the consequences.
The SPITE project was launched in 2015 to coincide with the then newly created statute, the Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015, to combat the rising issue in the distribution of intimate images. Unfortunately, in a day and age where social media usage has greatly increased, this happens to still be a current issue for people of all ages especially young people who might not realise the potential implications of sharing or taking intimate photographs. Hence, there is a need to educate young people in this area.
Since 2015, the project has seen tremendous growth in the number of people and workshops we deliver. This academic year alone, we have delivered 25 workshops from October to March to over 950 students ranging from Year 7 to Year 12. Our undergraduate Law students create interactive and bespoke workshops to educate the students on the law, especially with the recent changes to the Online Safety Act 2023, which took effect on January 31st. Additionally, the workshops cover online safety, touching on areas such as cyberbullying, upskirting and deepfakes.
From the workshops delivered this year, we have seen what great educational value the workshops deliver. They promote legal awareness, empower young students to understand their rights and what legal recourse is available to help them and promote respectful online behaviour. The workshops were as useful to our undergraduate students as they were to the school students, as you can see from the below quote by a Queen Mary law school student on the project.
“I loved the project as a whole. It was not only valuable for public speaking development and presenting skills, but it was also a genuinely fun project to be a part of. Working with children and feeling as if you have made a difference and taught them something valuable is extremely rewarding. You get to meet lots of people in your teams as well which is nice!” The project's success would not have been possible without all the schools we have worked with across London, our undergraduate law students, and our volunteering supervising barristers and solicitors.We look forward to delivering the SPITE for Schools project again next academic year. If your school or college is interested, you can book by emailing Daisy at lac@qmul.ac.uk.