The ACT Legislative Assembly made the right move last year when the three major parties passed a bill to make it a crime to share an intimate photo without consent.

But about seven months on it is becoming clear that such a crime is difficult to prosecute due perhaps to the secrecy of the act itself and the understandable reluctance of victims to come forward.

Only three people have been charged under the laws, which carry penalties of up to three years in jail or a $45,000 fine if perpetrators publish or threaten to publish revenge porn.

The penalties increase to five years in jail or a $75,000 fine if the victim is under the age of 16.

Courts can also order people to take down or delete the intimate images, or face two years' jail or a $30,000 fine.

Experts have warned that the actual number of victims is likely to be much higher due to several barriers against reporting the crime to authorities.

There is fear that reporting the crime could antagonise the perpetrator to seek retribution and overriding feelings of shame or embarrassment about the incident.

This typifies the truly devastating nature of the crime because the threat of distributing the images can be enough to silence the victim and/or continue the abusive situation.

A survey undertaken by researchers at RMIT University and Monash University last year found that one in five people across Australia had suffered image-based abuse and marginalised groups were especially vulnerable.

The most common types of abuse were taking sexual or nude images without consent (20 per cent), distributing images without consent (11 per cent) and threatening to share images (9 per cent).

The survey also found the abuse had a damaging psychological toll on victims with some severely affected by depression and/or anxiety.

Canberra is not immune to this problem. Two years ago five ACT schools were caught in a pornography ring where teenage boys and young men secretly exchanged graphic sexual images of female students.

Victim support organisations have reported dealing with clients who had been drugged by their partners and forced into degrading sex, which was recorded.

They were then threatened if they didn't comply with further demands the images would be posted on Facebook. Other woman said their partners had threatened to share intimate images to stop them reporting abuse to police or taking out a protection order.

There could be an argument made that the laws are successfully working as a deterrent to those disturbed individuals thinking of engaging in the crime.

But it is more likely that many offenders are comfortable in the knowledge they will never get reported due to the constant threats and abusive controlling behaviour.