The court system in England has given a “cyberflasher” a sentence of over a year in prison which is the first time this has happened in the country after the Online Safety Act came into effect on January 31. The 39-year-old offender, who was already known as a sex offender, recently confessed in court to sending explicit photos of himself in February to both an adult woman and teenage girl through the messaging platform, WhatsApp. The woman then captured the interaction in a screenshot and reported it to the police on the same day.
Approved by UK lawmakers last year, the new laws aim to safeguard children and adults from seeing unwanted images. They also impose additional “legal responsibility on tech companies to stop and quickly delete illegal content, such as terrorism and revenge pornography.”
A A study from 2020 found that around 76 percent of girls between 12 and 18 have been sent unsolicited sexual images from boys and men, often randomly through cyberflashing. This type of harassment is described as sending unsolicited sexual images to targets via social media, text messages, or dating apps “for the purpose of their own sexual pleasure or to cause the victim embarrassment, fear, or distress,” and was included in the UK’s Online Safety Bill in March 2023 before it was formally passed the following October. Offenders can receive a maximum of two years in prison if found guilty.
[Related: How can you securely send nudes?]
“Just as those who commit indecent exposure in the physical world can expect to face the consequences, so too should offenders who commit their crimes online,” Hannah von Dadelzsen, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor for CPS East of England, said in an official statement on March 19.
As Engadget notes, similar digital legislative actions exist around the world, but they differ in scope and punishment. Scotland and Northern Ireland prohibited cyberflashing in 2010 and 2011, respectively, while both Australia and Singapore also enforce criminal charges for cyberflashing.
In the US, regulations progress more gradually. In 2022, California became the third state (after Texas and Virginia) to pass laws protecting against cyberflashing harassment. Dating app companies like Bumble have also expressed support for new laws to better prosecute cyberflashing. According to Bumble’s own internal research, despite promoting itself as a “women-first” app, half of its female users have received such images on the platform. Efforts to tackle these issues at a national level have not yet resulted in actual legislation.
Meanwhile, some policymakers are aiming to use these valid concerns to launch broader censorship efforts. In Oklahoma, for instance, Republican state senators introduced a bill last month that aims to ban exchanging all explicit content, even if requested, for anyone except married couples as part of a larger anti-pornography campaign.
After the announcement of the conviction, Deputy Chief Crown Prosecutor von Dadelzsen pledged “it will not be the last” of such prosecutions, and encouraged additional victims to come forward “knowing you have the right to lifelong anonymity” through England’s legal protections.
