More than 500 people have signed a petition calling on the ACT Legislative Assembly to criminalise the non-consensual disclosure of sexual images.
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Greens MLA Caroline Le Couteur tabled the "revenge porn" petition on Wednesday.
Ms Le Couteur said the ACT could "not afford to wait and pretend" that image abuse isn't a problem in Canberra.
"We saw only last year how many schools in Canberra were linked to a ring of students from over 70 high schools around Australia, orchestrating the distribution of pornographic materials of hundreds of young women, being distributed behind their backs and without their consent," she said.
"This year, we saw a man take his own life after being extorted over his use of Grindr."
Ms Le Couteur said social media and the internet made it easier to share and distribute images more widely.
"We know that our laws do not deal with this new technology," she said.
"Behind the scenes, we know from recent research that one in five Australians are victims of image-based sexual abuse – whether that's upskirting, downblousing, so-called revenge porn, sextortion or threats of abuse.
"One in 10 Australians have had a nude or semi-nude image of them posted online or distributed without their consent."
Ms Le Couteur said strong laws were needed to say that non-consensual sharing of sexual images is unacceptable.
She said new research showed that image abuse disproportionately impacts the most vulnerable groups in society including young people, the LGBTI community, people with disabilities and indigenous Australians.
"This abuse is directly linked to high levels of psychological distress, consistent with moderate to severe depression or anxiety," she said.
"We know that our current laws have not caught up with social trends.
"Sometimes young people are at risk of mistakenly being charged with child pornography offences when their images are shared with their consent.
"We know the ACT is now out of step with the rest of Australia.
"Both South Australia and Victoria have now brought in offences relating to image-based abuse, and New South Wales and Western Australia are both in the process of doing so."
Ms Le Couteur said she was working with the petition organiser Rhys Michie to prepare a discussion paper that reviews the relevant research and legislation.
"Four in five Australians want sharing of sexual images without consent to be a crime," she said.
"This is regardless of whether they have experienced this abuse themselves.
"But we also know that what Australia has is a piecemeal and inconsistent response to a growing problem.
"The ACT government is not acting on the issue but it should be."
A spokesman for Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay said law reform work was under way across Australia to more specifically target the use of intimate images without a person's consent.
The spokesman said the ACT Government would consider any recommendations coming from a meeting of attorneys-general, justice and police ministers from around Australia.
She noted that some offences can be and are prosecuted under existing legislation.
