The Crown Prosecution Service will be from now considering charging online sexual behaviour such as cyber flashing, down blouse images, women breast feeding, and sharing so called “deep fake” files. These actions are now an offence under The Online Safety Act 2023. The new law applies to England and Wales. Offenders face up to two years in prison.
This is an example of the criminal justice system catching up with technological advances.
Cyber flashing is the sending of unwanted sexual images to strangers online. It can be sent via social media or dating apps or even through Blue tooth or Air drop. A “deep fakes” is a video or image of a person that is altered to look like someone else, a famous celebrity for example.
It is an offence to intentionally send, give a photograph or film of anyone’s private parts to another person, if the sender intends the other person on seeing the genitals to be caused alarm, distress or humiliation; or the sender does so with the aim of obtaining sexual gratification. “Sending” has a wide meaning including both electronic and non electronic means.
An added harm to victims is that in some cases a preview of the image can appear on a phone even if rejected, so in effect it can be seen before it is known to be unwanted.
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