Outlaw cyber-flashing, app Bumble urges ministers

DATING app Bumble has criticised the Online Safety Bill for not going far enough to protect women from cyber-flashing.

Ministers confirmed in March that a new crime will be introduced in the Online Safety Bill to ban the “reckless” sharing of unsolicited images, and make the act a crime. Under the proposals, it would be illegal to send such pictures with a sexual motive or those that intentionally try to inflict distress.

Campaigners, however, argue any new plans should focus on whether the receiver of the images has given consent. They have warned current proposals leave a loophole that could be exploited.

Nima Elmi, Bumble’s head of public policy for Europe, urged the Government to rethink its plans.

She said: “A consent-based offence covers all forms of cyber-flashing, regardless of the motives of the sender. This means that cases will be based on the straightforward question of whether a victim consented to receiving the images or videos.”

Ms Elmi said a survey carried out for Bumble had found nearly half of those aged 18-24 had received a sexual photo they did not ask for in the last year alone. Offenders convicted under the Government’s planned cyber-flashing crime will face up to two years in prison, bringing the penalty for online indecent exposure into line with the offline world.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said it had consulted with the Law Commission in the creation of the new offence, adding that its focus on the offender’s motive helped ease public focus on victims of cyberflashing.

Professor Clare Mcglynn of Durham University warned that wording put forward by digital economy minister Chris Philp risked only criminalising some forms of cyberflashing instead of completely outlawing the behaviour.

She said alternative legal wording put forward by Bumble would close the loophole in ministers’ plans.

Prosecutors would be hobbled in attempts to convict offenders who had recklessly sent intimate images.

Plans to crack down on “reckless” cyberflashing follow abuses of technology such as Apple’s Airdrop. The filesharing function allows strangers to send images to any iphone if it is set to receive files from “everyone”. Default settings on new iphones block all files except those from senders already in the owner’s contacts book.

Tech companies from across the business spectrum are mostly campaigning against the Online Harms Bill.