A Love Island star has described being regularly targeted by men online with unsolicited explicit photos, as the first person in the UK to be convicted of cyber flashing is set to be sentenced.
Amy Hart says men have consistently sent her images of their genitals on social media since she appeared on the ITVX reality show in 2019, as she insisted the law needs to “go further” to stamp out the practice.
"You're flicking through the Instagram stories you've been tagged in and they just pop up", the 31-year-old told Sky News.
"These people tag loads of women in the public eye so they can say 'this list of people have all seen my penis'."
Ms Hart spoke about cyber flashing alongside journalist Sophie Gallagher, who recalled being sent 120 images of a stranger’s erect penis via her iPhone’s AirDrop function when she was on the Tube in 2017.
"This is by no means unique to me”, she said. "Anyone in the public eye - celebrities, politicians - are bombarded with it constantly."
Ms Gallagher said the incident angered her, and left her with feelings of "shame, guilt and embarrassment".
"I was embarrassed people might think I was just looking at these pictures on my phone on the Tube”, she said.
At Basilson crown court on Tuesday, Nicholas Hawkes, 39, is set to be the first person to be sentenced for cyber flashing since the law changed on January 31.
Hawkes, a convicted sex offender from Basildon who had in the past stripped naked in public, sent unsolicited images of his penis to a woman and a 15-year-old girl via WhatsApp.
The Online Safety Act introduced cyber flashing as a criminal offence for the first time, as well as criminalising the practice of “down-blousing” and sharing deepfake nude images.
Under the new law, prosecutors must show that the cyber flasher intended to cause alarm, distress, or humiliation by sending the images.
But Ms Hart said: "The law is great progress, but it needs to go further and become consent-based. Because to me they could just say it was a joke - and then it's fine."
She and Ms Gallagher told Sky News they have blocked social media accounts, deleted unsolicited photos, and adapted their phone settings in a bid to stop the problem.
"I turn my AirDrop off, that has solved that, but what's the next thing?”, said Ms Gallagher. “Technology is constantly evolving so the next thing will be deepfakes, AI, a new social media platform.
"The argument that we should 'just stop using social media' is the short-skirt-drunk-woman argument for a new generation.
"It blames the victim - rather than the perpetrator - and minimises how important our online lives are and the right we have to live safely online."
Ms Hart also said she has endured men threatening to turn up at the home she shares with her boyfriend and young son, making her cautious about what she posts online.
"I can't say where we are and what we're going to be doing tonight in real time, because it's not hard to work out where I live”, she said. “I do feel quite unsafe sometimes."
Experts say cyber flashing can be a gateway offence to more serious sexual crimes.
A report last month into the kidnap, rape and murder of Sarah Everard by Met Police officer Wayne Couzens uncovered that he had, in the past, tried to show colleagues violent, extreme pornography.
Ms Hart and Ms Gallagher are among the women campaigning for tougher measures by social media companies to stop people being sent, and seeing, indecent and harmful images online.
Reacting to Hawkes’ conviction, Sefer Mani from Crown Prosecution Service East of England, said: “Cyber-flashing is a grotesque crime and the fact we were able to deliver swift justice for the two victims shows the new law is working.
“Everyone should feel safe wherever they are and not be subjected to receiving unwanted sexual images.
“I urge anyone who feels they have been a victim of cyber-flashing to report it to the police and know that they will be taken seriously and have their identities protected.”
