two - The Harms of Cyberflashing

Summary

I was terrified as to who was watching me, and knowing there was a sexual predator within a few metres … I actually called a friend while I was getting off the train and walking to my car so I wasn't alone … On the way to my car, I was 100 per cent terrified. What if this person is following me?

(Leecie, quoted in Precel, 2019)

Cyberflashing is often trivialised and normalised, framed as a routine and unavoidable part of women's lives. However, cyberflashing is not inevitable, and its seriousness – the wrong it entails, the significant impacts it can cause – should not be minimised. Accordingly, this chapter explores the harms of cyberflashing, challenging the assumption that its impacts are less ‘real’ or serious simply because the image is sent digitally rather than seeing a ‘flasher’ in ‘real life’. We examine the ‘real world’ harms experienced and described by victim-survivors, drawing on a wide range of publicly available testimonies and the studies that have begun to investigate this area (Amundsen, 2020; Mandau, 2020; Marcotte et al, 2020; Johansen and Tjornhoj-Thomsen, nd). Overall, it is imperative that the nature and extent of the harms of cyberflashing be properly recognised and understood, if we are to generate effective and long-lasting change through targeted prevention and education initiatives, as well as meaningful law reform.

The chapter begins by underlining that the harms of cyberflashing must be understood as gendered, as well as intersectional and contingent. We then outline that, fundamentally, cyberflashing is an infringement of sexual autonomy. Next, we explain cyberflashing as constituting an intrusive sexual violation for some, followed by considering how for others the harm manifests as humiliation. The fear and threat sometimes induced by cyberflashing is then discussed, including the similarities between physical sexual exposure, silent/ obscene phone calls and cyberflashing. We also make clear the extent of the cumulative harms of cyberflashing, impacting on women's sense of safety, freedom, participation in public spaces (both online and offline) and ‘right to everyday life’ (Beebeejaun, 2017); all of which perpetuates and extends gender inequality. Finally, we reflect on the broader social harms of cyberflashing and how its prevalence ultimately deprives us all of a richer, more diverse public and online discourse (Citron, 2014).