RALEIGH --  A loophole in a law aimed at stopping revenge porn should be closed with a new law that goes into effect on Friday.  That means more pictures and images will now be illegal to disseminate or post.

Representative Chris Malone of Wake County led the charge in the legislature to fix the state’s revenge porn law. He says domestic violence advocates and district attorneys told him the original law as it was approved had an unforeseen hole was left open.

“The problem we were having is that the North Carolina Coalition of Sexual Assault were being told by the district attorneys that they couldn't prosecute certain cases,” says Malone.  “And those cases were the ones where somebody was not aware that a picture was being take of themselves.  And then that picture got posted.  Now that's wrong.  You know that’s wrong, I know that’s wrong. But they felt there was a hole and we needed to go ahead and fix it.”

Revenge porn is when an image of a person is shared without that person's consent. Advocates say by having this law, it should prevent that from happening.                       

 “If you have a photo of someone, and you break up, and you decide you are going to blast that on the internet, on your phone to other people you can be prosecuted for it, ” says Skye David, a board member for the NC Coalition Against Domestic Violence.  “And you should be prosecuted for it.  And once you put things out on the internet you can't take them back.”

There were cases that DA's tried to prosecute after the law was passed in 2015, but they couldn't because the victim wasn't the one who took the picture and a relationship had to be proven.

“Which I think teenagers are sexting more now, so it would be able to encompass that group as well,” says David.

As technology advances, and social media continues to grow, advocates say the state will need to continue to evolve its laws to protect victims.

When this law goes into effect on Friday, it will only apply to offenses committed after that date.