Young Man Sentenced For Criminal Harassment For "Sexting"

On September 7, 2016, the Ontario Court of Justice ("ONCJ")¹ imposed a suspended sentence on a young man charged with criminal harassment, contrary to section 264 of the Criminal Code of Canada (the "Code"), after he posted nude and semi-nude images of his underage girlfriend to a public pornographic website without her consent.

Facts

Botong Zhou became romantically involved with a young woman (the "Complainant") when she was 14 and he was 16. At Mr. Zhou's request, the Complainant took sexually explicit photos of herself and posted them on a private website that only she and Mr. Zhou had access to. After posting the photos to the private website, the Complainant discovered that 10 of her nude and semi-nude photos were posted to a public pornographic website and had been viewed over 1,300 times over a span of two years. Underneath the photos, Mr. Zhou asked viewers to "rate" the Complainant and describe what they would "do to her".