It has already been held in case law that the fact that the offenses were committed in the virtual space does not constitute a reason for the offense (see Criminal Appeal 3576/14 Manis v. State of Israel [Nevo] (February 29, 2016), hereinafter - the Manis case), and that this figure can also be viewed as a consideration of severity, in view of the great accessibility of the Internet. Ease of committing offenses in this area and penetration into the private space of minors (see Criminal Appeal 538/13 Sabah v. State of Israel [Nevo] (December 26, 2013)).
- In Criminal Appeal 1269/15 Anonymous v. State of Israel, paragraph 12 [Nevo] (December 23, 2015), the Supreme Court considered the severity inherent in the offense of possession and publication of obscene materials, including images of minors , and the damage that must be prevented within the framework of the prohibition, and held as follows:
"The prohibition on possession and publication of pornographic material is intended to prevent two main damages: The first damage caused by the publication and possession of child pornography is an infringement of children's dignity and privacy (the value of dignity and the value of privacy). This harm concerns first and foremost children who are the object of the pornographic material itself. The intensity and severity of the damage depends, of course, on the nature of the photograph, the circumstances of its production and the distribution it reaches, but in any case, the privacy and dignity of the children appearing in such materials are violated by the fact that these photographs are used sexually.
The second harm is physical-sexual harm to children (the value of bodily integrity and the protection of children's soul). The causal relationship that appears in the literature between possession and publication of pornographic material and physical-sexual abuse of children is twofold. First, the consumption of obscene material in the form of child pornography may encourage the market to continue producing such material, which entails physical-sexual harm to children, as detailed above. Kim also feared that the holder himself would use the material in his possession to coax other children to create pornographic material for him with their participation. Second, possession of such material may lead to physical-sexual harm to children by the holder, who will try to imitate the acts presented in the pornographic material."
- The advertising industry and the distribution of intimate media by a person on the various social networks, without his free consent and sometimes even without his knowledge, constitutes a serious violation of his privacy, dignity and his right to autonomy over his body and character. In contrast to the ease with which these offenses are committed, there is the difficulty in exposing them and locating the advertiser or distributor, as well as prosecuting him, especially in light of the development of the wonders of technology, the encryption of the identity of the perpetrators of the offenses, and the use of applications that make it difficult to identify the perpetrator, such as "Telegram", etc. The leakage of photos and videos to the Internet is almost untraceable, preventable and erased, and is engraved forever on computers, servers, mobile phones, and at any time the sexual content can be redistributed by potential keyboard criminals. We are dealing with a phenomenon that cannot be estimated or predicted, so that the distribution cycle is without an end point.
From the moment the file is distributed, it cannot be turned back, it spreads like fire in a field of thorns in the virtual world and is washed into an unstoppable immersive stream that is burned into the digital archive and cannot be erased forever. It is enough for someone to make a copy of the publication in order to bring about the unstoppable erosion.