to think that it should be illegal to send unsolicited knob photos?

[MsVestibule]

I am, of course, referring to online dating. Apart from being absolutely vile, and fairly unlikely to make a woman think "Hmm, that's the sort of man I want to spend an evening/the rest of my life with", surely it can't be legal to do this? Would it be illegal to send er, intimate photos through the post when the recipient hadn't asked for them?

I can imagine that a woman would be laughed out of the police station if she reported it, but are these men actually committing an offence?

YANBU. You'd be arrested for whipping out your knob randomly in the street so I don't know why anybody thinks it's ok online.

Gros....

Isn't there some sort of offence of sending electronic messages which cause distress??

Its modern day flashing.

The girls at work who are online dating are plagued with knob shots. Glad I'm not dating. What makes a bloke think its going to get them a date/shag?? Dunno, depressingly I wonder if it does work?

charity my post, or the sending of the photos??!

I met my DH online, fortunately before this practice started. It would put me right off now. I wonder if there's any difference between the free sites and the ones you have to pay for?

I've never done online dating so I'm a bit ... Yuck!

I guess it will be, one day. It might be the Yewtree of the 2020s.

Viva I don't even know if they do think that'll get them the girl. Maybe they're just doing it for a reaction, like real flashers do?

YANBU. I think laws regarding online behaviour need to catch up with those regarding real life actions.

I genuinely cannot understand why men think this is ok or likely to lead to positive responses! I'd run like the wind from any bloke that sent this stuff.

I also think it's flashing. And chatting to them shouldnt mean it's ok.

If you said hallo as you walked past a guy in the street and he started flashing at you he would be arrested for indecent exposure.

They need to arrest people for this.

Ohh, I mentioned this a few days ago in another thread about someone's date sending an unsolicited knob picture. The OP had replied with a sarcastic response. I said that I thought it was the the lazy mans version of flashing and I said that surely it must be illegal? Everyone ignored me.

Well, it's a useful indicator of the standard of person you're chatting with... probably illegal, definitely useful to know upfront, and waste no more of your time.

'malicious communications' - thanks stx that's the phrase I was thinking of. I doubt anybody's actually been prosecuted for this, though.

is the thread I was referring to.

where I was ignored hmmph

My two sisters, my mother and I were all the ungrateful recipients of just such a photo sent my email from a disgruntled ex partner of my brother. (We deleted my mum's without her seeing it).

One sister spoke to a child protection colleague, we then reported it to the police. The sender received a police caution, which as she required a CRB check resulted in her losing her job. Couldn't have lived with ourselves if we hadn't followed it up as she was unbalanced and shouldn't have been allowed anywhere near children

Thanks Zulu, didn't realise a similar thread was started recently!

Audit at least the police could find her easily, unlike the effort they'd have to put into tracking down a random stranger online. I do genuinely wonder what the reaction of a police officer would be if somebody reported it.

I would be furious if I received an unsolicited knob shot. I would feel disgusted and I would try and report it. I'm not a prude but doing something like that seems quite an aggressive thing to do.

Me too, Zulu. I've never seen anybody suggest it may be illegal before - it seems that most people treat it as 'well, at least it weeds out the weirdos' (no offence to the pp ^^ who said similar ).

Maybe I should join an OD site, (for research purposes only!) then report any of these photos to the police. Not sure if DH would be terribly understanding "I only joined OD to get knob photos" .

^^ msvest you can always give it a try, let us know how it pans out eh?!

I think it should be an Illegal, easily reportable offence. Would every man who sends knob shots to a prospective partner get the same level of punishment as the woman who was harassing audit and her family? Would it just be minimised into 'flirting'?

I think we should start a campaign. It's an aggressive and derogatory sexual practice disguised as banter. Wheres the consent??? Noone asks do they? Ie: Would you like to see a picture of my cock? Umm no, actually.

Its the intent behind it that is unsettling. Simply seeing a penis is ok but being sent a picture of a penis is definitely not. You can see penis's on the tv fairly readily but I don't find them offensive.

I guess I would think the same if it was a woman sending the equivalent picture.

It is illegal

Telecommunications Act

I wish this was taken more seriously

so many are flippant about it. there was a thread a few months ago and so many posters were laughing about it with witty remarks to reply to such picture. It is not different to someone standing outside your home and flashing this we would be less likely to laugh about. we need to be telling young adults this is wrong to send and receiving such a picture is not what you should expect

Eww. I'm also pretty sure there IS a law out there that prohibits unlawful or unsolicited pictures of cocks or whatever.
An obscene publication act? Can't be arsed googling the exact title as it is late but there is one out there.
Watch what you post, people.

I don't think you can compare someone flashing you in public with someone sending a photo. Someone who is flashed in public has the threat of actual sexual assault which is very intimidating and frightening, a photo of a penis may be rude but there's no threat and no reason to fear. You can roll your eyes in disgust and delete/block or snigger, it's silly, not malicious or threatening.

The police have actual criminals causing genuine danger to be dealing with, I'd hope they wouldn't waste their time on some poor idiot who thought a dick pic would have a strange woman swooning. If they did bring in such a law women are far worse offenders than men when it comes to online flashing and since there are so many online photo flashers of both sexes the police wouldn't have any resources left to deal with any crime if they were forced to waste their time on harmless exhibitionists.

It would be much better for them to bring perpetrators of sexual violence to justice and people who send naked photos of themselves should not be placed in the same category as sex offenders, they're not.

Your an adult, if you dislike what someone sends you, block them.

Totally agree. AFAIK, if it's repeated thing, it can be deemed sexual harassment, but YANBU.

I recieved several dick pics, as well as porn images and generally lewd messages from a friends brother who had apparently 'taken a shine' to me and in the end I felt like I couldn't use FB in case he saw I was online. Whenever my phone went I'd dread it in case it was him. I just deleted them all straight away and blocked him, but it really did feel like harassment. I didn't report it because he was my friends brother and I didn't want to ruin a friendship, and also I'm married and thought my husband would have gone crazy at him so just felt it wasn't worth it.