Cyberflashing: the fight must go on
Last month, the UK saw the first person jailed for cyberflashing following our campaign with Emily Atack (above). Here, she explains how there’s still more work to be done
WHEN NICHOLAS HAWKES was jailed for 66 weeks last month, he became the first person in England to be imprisoned for cyberflashing after it was made illegal under the Online Safety Act in January. Hawkes sent unsolicited photos of his erect penis to a woman and a 15-year-old girl. For all those who’ve been working tirelessly to see this law passed, his sentencing felt like something to celebrate. To say I’ve been at the receiving end of ‘dick pics’ is an understatement, I can’t count how many thousands I’ve been sent over the years – and I campaigned with Grazia to help criminalise them.
You might think that now cyberflashing is illegal and we’re starting to see the first stories of real justice being served that grotesque messages sent to my Instagram DMS would have started to die down. But now I’m pregnant, the abuse has morphed into something else. Dick pics have been replaced with men messaging to make vile comments about my body. They say things like, ‘Put your bump away love, no one wants to see that.’ Every day I receive countless hostile messages from men; the other day a guy messaged me to tell me he’s ‘so sick of innocent men being attacked’. It’s frustrating to see some men being so defensive – and that’s a mindset we really need to change.
It shows that while the conviction is a huge step in the right direction, there is still so much work to be done. To really make cyberflashing and misogynistic online abuse a thing of the past we need a cultural shift. Education around consent is key. There needs to be more discussion between boys and girls around these topics from a young age. But also the entire narrative that is pushed about women needs to be looked at. That women are liars, we are attention seekers, we are ‘asking for’ this kind of attention. The blame is put all on to us and completely takes the focus off the perpetrator. We need to change perceptions of women altogether. In fact, figures show that incidents of cyberflashing are on the rise. A survey carried out by the UK’S leading charity against online abuse, Glitch, found that respondents reported a 27% increase in online abuse during the pandemic. In 2021, a study by the University of Leicester found that a third of women said that they had been cyberflashed.
That’s not to say there aren’t lovely men out there who message saying, ‘I’ve got daughters and I’m really glad to see this change happening.’ This isn’t about attacking all men, but we do need the men who don’t behave like this to be our allies and speak up. The new legislation and conviction is a huge milestone for women, but the bottom line is we haven’t managed to stamp it out yet, and every unsolicited dick pic received can be really damaging.
The cyberflashing conviction reminded me that someone is listening and now, more than ever, I’m driven to keep fighting. I am going to be a mother to a son soon and I want him to grow up in a world that is safer and more respectful towards women. I feel really hopeful this can happen.