{"id":29279,"date":"2026-01-08T03:36:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T03:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/2026\/01\/08\/cyber-flashing-has-just-become-a-priority-criminal-offense-thats-changing-today-science-climate-and-technology-news\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T03:36:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T03:36:20","slug":"cyber-flashing-has-just-become-a-priority-criminal-offense-thats-changing-today-science-climate-and-technology-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/2026\/01\/08\/cyber-flashing-has-just-become-a-priority-criminal-offense-thats-changing-today-science-climate-and-technology-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Cyber-flashing has just become a priority criminal offense – that’s changing today | Science, climate and technology news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cyber-Flashing Becomes a Priority Criminal Offense<\/h1>\n

Cyber-flashing became illegal in 2024, and now the government is taking it a step further by making it a priority criminal offense. This move is aimed at putting pressure on tech companies to take action against the sending of non-consensual, explicit images, commonly known as "dick pics." The recipients of these images are most often women, with a study by the dating app Bumble revealing that women between the ages of 40 and 45 are the most frequent recipients.<\/p>\n

What Changes Now?<\/h2>\n

Under the Online Safety Act, online platforms are required to ensure they do not host illegal content. If they do, Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, can fine them 10% of their turnover or \u00a318m, whichever is greater. By making cyber-flashing a priority crime, the government is signaling to regulators and tech companies that it is taking this crime seriously. The minister for AI and online security, Kanishka Narayan, stated that "the demands on platforms are much higher" and that platforms like dating and social media apps must take proactive steps to prevent cyber-flashing.<\/p>\n

Requirements for Tech Companies<\/h3>\n

Tech companies are now required to do three things:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Assess the risk of cyber-flashing specifically<\/li>\n
  2. Take proactive steps to prevent it instead of reacting after it happens<\/li>\n
  3. Integrate security features against cyber-flashing into the design of their products<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Can Tech Companies Stop Cyber-Flashing?<\/h2>\n

    From a technological perspective, cyber-flashing is not particularly difficult to stop. Bumble has been filtering offensive messages since 2019 and has open-sourced the technology. The company’s product manager for security, Namrata Haribal, explained that they trained their model on many datasets of both offensive and non-offensive images, achieving about 98% accuracy. Almost all major platforms now have such technology, designed to detect explicit images and intervene before they are seen by someone who doesn’t want to see them.<\/p>\n

    Will Making Cyber-Flashing a Priority Crime Make a Difference?<\/h2>\n

    The minister believes that making cyber-flashing a priority crime will make a difference, but Professor Clare McGlynn, a law professor at Durham University, is not so sure. She has been campaigning for better cyber-flashing rules for years and notes that while this is a welcome first step, the most important aspect is whether it will be enforced by the regulator Ofcom. Professor McGlynn points out that rape pornography and non-consensual intimate images are also high-profile crimes, yet they can still be found online because the Online Safety Act and Ofcom have not enforced it properly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Cyber-Flashing Becomes a Priority Criminal Offense Cyber-flashing became illegal in 2024, and now the government is taking it a step further by making it a priority criminal offense. This move is aimed at putting pressure on tech companies to take action against the sending of non-consensual, explicit images, commonly known as "dick pics." The recipients<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[21866,21867,21865,21868,17996,3006,7209,9708,21869],"class_list":{"0":"post-29279","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech","8":"tag-air-india-flight-182","9":"tag-clare-mcglynn","10":"tag-cyberflashing","11":"tag-durham-university","12":"tag-ofcom","13":"tag-online-dating","14":"tag-open-source-software","15":"tag-rape","16":"tag-rape-pornography"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29279"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29281,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29279\/revisions\/29281"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nanamedia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}