Research reflects the world we live in, and I just don’t think this problem has been taken seriously until relatively recently.” The term ‘cyberflashing’ wasn’t even in widespread use until about a year or so ago. I think this blind spot says something about how society and the law tends to think of the problem: that dick pics are an annoying internet phenomenon as opposed to ‘real’ flashing. “The research in this area is really limited. Laura Thompson, a researcher at City, University of London, whose work examines harassment over dating apps, says the issue has until now been trivialised. The problem has become widespread enough that MPs and campaigners are now calling for a law targeting “cyberflashers”. Anyone, of any age, who has AirDrop turned on at its most unrestricted setting is at risk of picking up their phone to see a graphic image that was sent anonymously by someone in the same restaurant, cinema or train carriage. Some men have used the AirDrop function on their Apple devices – which allows users to share files with other nearby Apple devices – to send unsolicited pictures to women. (Only 5% of men in this age group admitted to having sent one.) Nor does this just happen through online dating. A 2018 YouGov poll found that, shockingly, four in 10 women aged between 18 and 36 have been sent a photograph of a penis without having asked for one – colloquially known as an unsolicited “dick pic”.
Holroyd’s experience is worryingly common. If the conversation had some potential, but was becoming boring, I would sometimes send a dick pic
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