Cyberflashing

La aplicación de citas Bumble acaba de lanzar una campaña para criminalizar el cyberflashing en Inglaterra y Gales, después de haber publicado datos que muestran que una de cada cuatro mujeres cree que se ha vuelto más frecuente durante la pandemia.La investigación de la aplicación también encontró que, en el último año, casi la mitad de las mujeres (cuarenta y ocho por ciento) de entre dieciocho y veinticuatro años recibieron una foto sexual no solicitada.Al unir fuerzas con ONU Mujeres, Bumble tiene la intención de realizar consultas parlamentarias entre partidos con los principales responsables políticos y los principales expertos para avanzar hacia la legislación y soluciones preventivas para poner fin al cyberflashing.Aquí encontrarás todo lo que necesitas saber sobre el cyberflashing.¿Qué es cyberflashing?Cyberflashing es el acto de enviar imágenes obscenas no solicitadas, por ejemplo, a través de AirDrop.El diccionario de Cambridge lo describe de la siguiente manera: “El acto de alguien que usa internet para enviar una imagen de su cuerpo desnudo, sobre todolos genitales (u órganos sexuales), a alguien que no conoce y que no le pidió que lo hiciera”.¿Es ilegal el cyberflashing?Ha sido ilegal en Escocia desde 2010, sin embargo, no existe una legislación específica contra él en Inglaterra y Gales.Los llamados al gobierno para que criminalice el cyberflashing han aumentado en los últimos años, a medida que su prevalencia se vuelve más evidente.En julio, un informe publicado por la Comisión de Derecho estipuló que, si bien la Ley de Delitos Sexuales tipificaba como delito la exposición de los genitales, no estaba claro si cubría imágenes o grabaciones de video y que se debería introducir una nueva legislación.El informe destacó el daño causado por el cyberflashing y afirmó que: "A menudo se experimenta como una forma de acoso sexual, que implica la intrusión sexual coercitiva de los hombres

The first person to be sentenced for sharing unsolicited explicit photos of his genitals in England and Wales is a 39-year-old man from Essex, England.Nicholas Hawkes was sentenced to 66 weeks in prison, the Crown Prosecution Service said Tuesday, after sending photos of his erect penis to a 15-year-old girl and an adult woman through messaging service WhatsApp on Feb. 9.The woman took screenshots of the image on WhatsApp and reported Hawkes to local police in Essex on the same day.Hawkes, who was already a convicted sex offender, was charged within days of the complaint, and on Feb. 12, he pleaded guilty to two counts of sending a photograph or film of genitals to cause alarm, distress or humiliation, the CPS said.Sending unsolicited explicit photos, or “cyberflashing,” became a criminal offense in England and Wales on Jan. 31, with the passage of the Online Safety Act.“Cyberflashing is a serious crime which leaves a lasting impact on victims, but all too often it can be dismissed as thoughtless ‘banter’ or a harmless joke,” said Hannah von Dadelzsen, a spokesperson for CPS East of England. “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; hiding behind a screen does not hide you from the law.”Hawkes was already on the sex offender register until November 2033 after a conviction last year on charges of sexual activity with a child under 16 and exposure.He was sentenced to 52 weeks for cyberflashing and an additional 14 weeks for breaching a previous court order, the CPS said. Hawkes was also given a restraining order to prevent him from contacting or approaching the woman and the girl for 10 years, and a sexual harm prevention order, which could prevent him from taking up certain jobs or visiting specified public places for 15 years.Under the recently passed online safety law, which aims to combat online sexual harassment, cyberflashing offenses on dating apps and other platforms such as WhatsApp can result in up to two years in prison. Some U.S. states, including California and Texas, have also passed laws to encourage those impacted by cyberflashing to bring lawsuits or file civil complaints against the perpetrators.California’s 2022 Forbid Lewd Activity and Sexual Harassment Act, or FLASH Act, would allow users who receive “unsolicited” and “obscene” material electronically to seek up to $30,000 in civil damages from the sender, The Washington Post previously reported.Unlike the law signed in Texas in 2019, which classifies cyberflashing as a Class C misdemeanor with fines of $500, the California measure stops short of labeling cyberflashing a crime. It simply creates a legal mechanism for those receiving unwanted lewd images to seek compensation.There are no federal laws in the United States prohibiting cyberflashing, and so far none of the states pushing bills to prevent the behavior are encouraging jailing the offenders.Von Dadelzsen of the Crown Prosecution Service said that Hawke’s sentencing was just the start of convicting those guilty

SEOUL - Amid growing concerns of fast-spreading digital sex crimes like deepfake pornography, there has been an increase in the number of social media users falling victim to “cyberflashing”, or sending someone unsolicited sexual images or videos.According to an official report released jointly by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family and the Women’s Human Rights Institute of Korea, the number of people seeking help at the institute for cyber harassment increased from 251 individuals in 2018 to 500 in 2023. The report defines cyber harassment as the act of sending sexually inappropriate messages through social media.Ms Chae Yoon-ji, 28, recounted to The Korea Herald about falling victim to cyberflashing in 2023 through Apple’s AirDrop feature, besides social media. The wireless service allows files be transferred between different Apple devices within a 9m radius.“I was so surprised that I dropped my phone. I also felt embarrassed because I was scared that someone would see my screen,” said Ms Chae.Ms Chae said that someone sent a picture of their genitals through AirDrop last year while she was on the subway. “I remember looking around to see who could have sent that photo to me, but I couldn’t grasp who it was. Not knowing who could be responsible for something like that made me feel even more helpless.”Though Apple has since updated its AirDrop feature to make it available for people to share materials among their contacts only, Ms Chae added that she has disabled the function from her phone due to “fear of something similar happening again”.While cyberflashing can be penalised under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Punishment of Sexual Crimes, experts criticise “low penalties” as one reason behind the low number of reports filed to the police.“Whether cyberflashing is done through social media or AirDrop, in most cases, it’s difficult for authorities to track down the perpetrators responsible for cyberflashing,” lawyer Kwak Joon-ho told The Korea Herald. “Even if perpetrators are caught, first-time offenders are usually only fined. While repeated offenders may be subject to being penalised, it must be clearly proven to the court that the offenders’ actions caused anxiety and fear -- and there are no clear standards for what constitutes that in the case for cyberflashing.” THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

En la vida cotidiana de las mujeres".En el momento de la publicación del informe, Caroline Dinenage, ministra de digital y cultura, declaró que el gobierno consideraría las recomendaciones de la comisión.“Imponemos nuevas responsabilidades legales a las empresas de redes sociales para proteger al público británico. Pero tenemos que estar seguros de que podemos responsabilizar a las personas que utilizan estos sitios para amenazar, abusar y difundir el odio”.¿Qué tan común es el cyberflashing?En 2019, la Policía de Transporte británica registró sesenta y seis informes de fotografías no solicitadas enviadas a través del servicio de intercambio de archivos AirDrop.Sin embargo, otras encuestas, como la realizada por Bumble, indican que el problema es mucho más común de lo que la gente piensa.Claire Barnett, directora ejecutiva de ONU Mujeres Reino Unido, dijo: “El ‘cyberflashing’ es un problema generalizado que, al igual que otras formas de acoso sexual, afecta e impacta de manera desproporcionada a mujeres y niñas.“A medida que reconstruimos tras la pandemia, tenemos una oportunidad única de reconsiderar cómo usamos e interactuamos en los espacios públicos, tanto en línea como fuera de línea. Los espacios digitales se convertirán en una parte mayor de nuestra vida diaria, por lo que, por el bien de las generaciones futuras, es crucial que lo consigamos ahora mismo, con soluciones preventivas y educativas para detener la violencia en línea".