Bare your arse in Melbourne in future and you could in big trouble.
The practise of exposing one’s bare buttocks in public, commonly known as ‘mooning’, has officially been outlawed in the Australian state of Victoria.
It’s not that ‘mooning’ had been encouraged up to now or anything like that, but it is now covered by specific legislation in Victoria following a revision of sexual offence laws in the state.
According to the BBC, as a result of the new legislation, first-time offenders could be jailed for up to two months, while those guilty of repeat offences could face up to six months in prison.
“Streaking” is also covered as an offence under the new legislation as over 50 crimes were included in an overhaul of the sexual offence laws, an overhaul brought about partly because of a desire to separate pranks involving nudity from acts of sexual exposure.
“Behaviour that is indecent offensive or insulting includes behaviour that involves a person exposing (to any extent) the person’s anal or genital region” is now included in the Summary Offences Act, which now specifically references “mooning or streaking” as an example of such an offence.
Elsewhere in the act, singing “an obscene song or ballad” and behaving in a “riotous, indecent, offensive or insulting manner” has now also been outlawed.
