Cyberflashing Is Another Form Of Online Sexual Intimidation To Scare Women Into Submission. But There Are Legal Remedies!
You don't have to just block and report!
As women, most of us spend all our time trying to fend off an attack or assault. We’re all just here trying to survive and keep our heads about water. Women’s safety has been a major concern especially online. It’s not uncommon to hear women receiving death and rape threats online and lewd/sleazy messages from people. Cyberstalking is another issue that a lot of people deal with. But the one most common and harmful problem that women have to put up with on social media and being on the internet is cyberflashing. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what this means. Allow me to explain, cyberflashing means dick pics!
What Is Cyberflashing?
With the accelerated growth of social media in our country and across the globe, online sexual offences have increased with the most common one being cyberflashing. Cyberflashing is an online sexual offence where a person sends others unsolicited sexual content without their consent on social media platforms, chatting apps, dating apps or any other such online platform. This sexual content could range from unsolicited dick pics to lewd videos and messages to video calls and other such stuff. And TBH, we’re not new to cyberflashing, are we now? We’ve all received unsolicited dick pics more times than we can count on our social media profiles or on dating apps. Uninvited graphic pictures are more common than we’d like to accept. Plus we all remember that case of a man who AirDropped nudes to an entire flight? Yep, that is cyberflashing, my dearies.
Also Read: Twitter User Calls Attention To Obsessive Nature Of Cyber Stalking. Online Harassment Is Real And We Need To Talk About It!
Here’s How Cyberflashing Affects Women
Cyberflashing is extremely common and I can bet that every single woman has experienced this at least once in their lifetime. I’ve personally received more unsolicited sexual content than I can count on both my hands. From getting lewd texts to video calls of men masturbating, I’ve seen it all. This online sexual offence is just as hard on us women. It’s not funny or okay to put women through something of this sort. Apart from being gross and disgusting, unsolicited sexual content can be disturbing and trigger trauma or distress. How are we supposed to be okay with being cheated into looking at a man’s dick or watching a video we did not want to watch?
This can be extremely unsettling and what’s worse is that women are simply expected to put up with it. This online sexual harassment is so common that women across the globe have simply become numb to it and have chosen to turn a blind eye but that does not mean that they do not feel violated. It makes a woman wonder what has she done to deserve to be bombarded with explicit content that she did not consent to view. It’s like cheating a woman into looking at something she does not want to. Cyberflashing can be considered a way of sexually intimidating a woman wherein she begins to fear using social media or a certain app and it also makes her anxious. The feeling of humiliation, however, does not go away.
Also Read: 5 Cyber Security Tips That Every Woman Should Follow To Stay Safe Online
In other words, cyberflashing can make women fear the online world just as much as they fear the real world. More importantly, cyberflashing is a violation of consent. Studies have claimed that the sender of unsolicited dick pic may be doing it with the assumption that the person on the other side might get excited or impressed by their penis but the truth is that it’s nothing more than a display of toxic masculinity and narcissism. A 2019 study published in the Journal of Sex Research has claimed that senders often tend to have narcissistic personality traits. If this disregard for someone’s consent isn’t proof of sexism, I don’t know what is. The aim is usually to dominate the recipient of the unsolicited dick pic and when it isn’t met with a positive response expected by the sender, they tend to get aggressive which can be extremely scary for a woman. And with the rise of sexual harassment and rapes in the metaverse, this can make things much much worse.
Are There Any Laws Against Cyberflashing In India?
While there is no particular law that understands or explains cyberflashing or prescribes the punishment for it, the Information Technology Act in India does cover cyberbullying and cyber harassment. Section 67 of the Information Technology Act 2000 speaks of punishment for sending sexually explicit content. Apart from this Section 509 of the Indian Penal Code says that any word, gesture, sound or act aimed at insulting the modesty of a woman including exhibiting any object which intrudes on her privacy can be punished with an imprisonment term of up to one year or with fine or with both. The Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) also has laws against exposing minors to sexually explicit content. But sadly, women always come across people who simply ask them to block such senders and report them instead of taking an action against them and preventing or deterring them from committing such crimes.
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