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Cyberflashing is to become a criminal offence, with those found guilty facing up to two years in prison.
The practice involves the sending of unsolicited sexual images to victims through social media, dating apps or using data sharing services including Bluetooth and Airdrop. In some cases a preview of the image appears on the person’s device even if they reject the transfer request.
It’s thought almost half of young women have been targeted. Among teenagers, the figure is even higher.
A new law to ban it will be included in the government’s Online Safety Bill.
The change will mean cyberflashing carries the same maximum sentence as indecent exposure.
The Bill will also put more legal responsibility on social media platforms, search engines and other websites or apps to tackle a range of illegal and harmful content on their services.
Jeanette Forder, from Kent, became a victim of cyberflashing soon after she opened an Instagram account to promote her business.
“I started to get messages that were dropping into the private mailbox that’s linked to the account,” she said.
“I always used to check them mainly because you never know, it could be a client.”
One man began persistently messaging her, saying he’d like to get to know her. She replied saying she wasn’t interested.
“The next day there was another unsolicited message,” she said.
“I opened it and he had taken a really intimate picture. It made me feel really dirty because it was on my phone, in my private mailbox and it was happening in my house.
“And it made me feel really scared as well because I know I don’t have my private address or anything like that public but what if that person could…
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Source : skynews
