We’ve been helping Bumble embark on a campaign calling for the criminalisation of Cyberflashing – the act of sending unsolicited images or video recordings of genitals without consent.
Known colloquially “dick pics”, the reality is that a disparity between IRL flashing, a criminal offence, and the digital equivalent is vastly out of sync.
What’s more, the issue has been somewhat trivialised in its portrayal, even though the act itself disproportionately impacts women who receive explicit images regularly sent on social media, messaging apps, AirDrop, Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.
In fact, findings show that 4 in 10 millennial women in the UK have been sent an unsolicited photo of a man’s genitals without consent and nearly half of those aged 18-24 have received a sexual photo they did not ask for in the last year alone.
It’s pretty sh&t. To put it bluntly.
As a result, we successfully launched a campaign (under the banner of #DigitalFlashingIsFlashing), calling on the Government to recognise the need for a change to the existing law to criminalise Cyberflashing and view the act in the same as it is as a real-world explicit act – bringing England and Wales into line with Scotland, where Cyberflashing has been a criminal offence for over a decade.
All-in-all we’ve done pretty well so far, securing 373 pieces of coverage to date across broadcast, editorial and social with the campaign delivering over 271 million Opportunities to See and highlights including pieces on The Independent, Mashable, Metro, Daily Mail and BBC News, as well as lots of support on social from the likes of Simple Politics, Fembible and The Modems.
And this is just the start …
