People who put videos of victims of an accident online should face a fine of €21,000 or up to one year in jail, Christian Democrat MP Madeleine van Toorenburg says in new draft legislation presented on Wednesday.

Toorenburg, whose proposal is supported by the PvdA and GroenLinks, has been working on a new law prohibiting videos of victims from being made public via streaming since footage of the victims of a fatal accident on the A58 appeared online in 2018.

People have been fined when caught filming but mostly for because they were hindering the emergency services or filming while driving. Placing the images online is not yet an offence.

‘It is unacceptable that this can happen. At the moment there is hardly anything to deter people filming those who need help or have died and making the images public. That need for sensation is abhorrent. It is an unacceptable breach of privacy and causes more grief to the victim or relatives,’ Toorenburg said in the draft legislation.