Warning, everyone: If you send an unsolicited nude image to anyone online in Texas, you can be charged with electronic transmission of sexually explicit material, a Class C misdemeanor, and fined up to $500.
The law against so-called “cyber flashing” took effect this past Saturday and seeks to stop “technology-enabled sexual harassment.”
According to FOX 4 News, Whitney Wolfe Herd, CEO of the Austin-based dating app Bumble, helped create the law with state Rep. Morgan Meyer of Dallas mostly to protect women who are often subject to sexual harassment online.
“Caroline Ellis Roche, Bumble’s chief of staff, said the company plans to take the legislation to the federal level and other states in hopes of enacting it more broadly,” reports FOX 4.
How about we take this to the next level?
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Interestingly, Texas isn’t the first state to enact a law. South Carolina reportedly also has a law making it “illegal to anonymously send any lewd content without the consent of the person receiving it,” according to FOX.
But this new Texas law has us feeling conflicted. While web users shouldn’t be harassing people with unwanted pictures of their meat, we’ve sometimes sent unsolicited pictures of our dong or “cakes” in hopes of enticing dudes online — and it often works. This law has now made doing that a criminal offense, potentially opening the door to serious First Amendment challenges.
Freedom of speech includes sexual expression, and it’s sometimes hard to know whether a sexual image is appreciated or not until after you send it. Some legal thinkers worry the new Texas law is so broadly written as to also criminalize the sending of medical and artistic images in the name of ending harassment.
This law actually reminds us somewhat of the Sept. 2017 Washington Supreme Court decision charging a 21-year-old man with child p*rnography for digitally sending a nude image of himself that he took when he was 17. Similarly, in 2018, two cities in Colorado investigated over 100 teens for the same crime after they sent nude images of themselves to others.
Roughly 18% to 22% of all teens send sexually explicit messages of themselves — that’s roughly 7.5 to 9.1 million teens nationwide, more than the entire population of New York City. As such, Texas’ new law continues a trend of criminalizing nudity online and could especially affect teens and young people who’re still learning about sexting and consent.
It could affect bunch of us who trust others to tell us when our nudes are unwanted rather than just reporting us to the cops.
What do you think? Is this law a good idea or are there better ways we can curb online sexual harassment?
QJ201
And apps like Grindr now have a profile feature: Accepts NSFW pics
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Brian
I’m fine with this. Clearly allowing people to police themselves hasn’t worked. A woman I work with told me she’s gotten a few unsolicited dick pics from guys we work with. I recently heard someone on a podcast talking about some new some apple thing that lets people mass send pics to everyone in a radius who has it activated, or something along those lines, and that he saw his female friend get a stranger’s dick pic that way while they were on a plane. It’s gone too far, you don’t have to be a prude too not want your phone invaded this way.
neptune704
If she’s getting dick pics from her coworkers, that’s sexual harassment and she needs to go to HR. Company can be liable.
The Apple phone thing is called AirDrop and you have to have it turned on, and it asks you “Joe Smith is sending you photos, do you want to accept them?” So then you can click “no”. Your phone has to be on (not in sleep/screen off mode) and you have to be pretty close (30 feet or so). And you can only send to one person at a time. Yes, it shows you a thumbnail of the image. But take a screen shot and go to HR. Or turn off AirDrop when you don’t need it.
Brian
Yes, but the point is not what they can do after the fact, the point is that they shouldn’t have to deal with it in the first place. Obviously nothing is going to stop it completely, but if people know they might have to start paying fines for sending dick pics, most of them are going to think twice about it.
JarodD
Only a matter of time before some rightwing nutjob goes on one of the apps and entices guys into sending nudes without actually saying theyre wanted and then uses this law to get them charged. So asinine and petty, if you dont want nudes then dont look at them, if someone continuously sends you them then that was already covered under existing harassment laws. This is an affront to free speech and a needless encroachment to other people’s liberty.
Brian
Don’t look at them? How do you know they’re unsolicited nudes without looking at them? And how exactly do you entice someone into sending you nudes in a way that is clear to them that that’s what you’re asking for, but nobody else would pick up on?
Other than that, your logic is spot on.