268 cyber-flashing offences recorded by the Met Police up to June this year reports Sonja Tutty, Data Reporter
(Credit – Met Police)
Hundreds of cyber-flashing offences have been recorded in London since it became a specific crime, recent figures show.
Cyber-flashing is when someone sends a photo or video of genitals to another person to scare, upset or humiliate them. It became a specifical criminal offence in January last year under the Online Safety Act.
The End Violence Against Women Coalition – a group of women’s support services, researchers, activists, survivors and charities – said the reported crimes reflect growing awareness around the offence but warned “much more is needed” beyond criminalisation.
Figures from the Home Office focusing on crimes which primarily target women and girls show there have been 268 cyber-flashing offences recorded by the Met Police up to June this year.
Across England and Wales, some 3,961 cyber-flashing offences have been recorded by police.
The Met Police recorded the highest number of these crimes, followed by West Midlands Police (240) and Essex Police (192).
Although cyber-flashing is a selected violence against women and girls offence, the figures include crimes against all genders.
Other VAWG offences introduced under the Online Safety Act include sending communication threatening death or serious harm and sending false communication with intent to cause harm.
In London, 399 threatening communication offences and 72 false communication offences have been recorded by police since January last year.
Andrea Simon, EVAW director, added: “This includes public educational campaigns, quality relationships and sex education in schools relevant to the digital age, and work to prevent violence against women and girls across the whole of society.
“We also need to see greater focus on holding accountable the tech platforms that facilitate and profit from this abuse.
“Their inadequate safeguards allow this behaviour to proliferate, and while the Online Safety Act has had a positive impact, it needs to go further by making mandatory its guidance for tech companies on tackling violence against women and girls.
She noted the figures likely underrepresent the scale of cyber-flashing, as women and girls “do not feel confident to report to the police”.
She said: “That’s why we are calling for the government to introduce effective means of civil redress for survivors.
“This means a system by which a court can order content take downs, removal and deletion of abusive content and award damages to survivors.”
A government spokesperson said: “New offences under the Online Safety Act mean online abusers can now rightly be prosecuted for behaviour that has gone unchallenged for too long.
“We’ve strengthened the act so platforms will need to proactively prevent users from seeing cyber-flashing and strangulation content.
“We’ve also introduced world-leading laws so that AI models cannot be misused to create child sexual abuse material.
“Platforms should no longer wait for content to be reported, they must take steps to protect people from harm.”
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