Almost 4,000 cyber-flashing crimes recorded since becoming an offence

Nearly 4,000 cyber-flashing crimes have been recorded by police in England and Wales since it became an offence last year, new 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 specific criminal offence in January 2024 under the Online Safety Act.

Figures from the Home Office focusing on crimes which primarily target women and girls show 3,951 cyber-flashing offences were recorded by police up to the end of June this year.

The Met Police recorded the highest number of cyber-flashing crimes (268), followed by West Midlands Police (240) and Essex Police (192).

Although cyber-flashing is a considered a violence against women and girls (VAWG) offence, the figures include crimes against all genders.

Other selected VAWG offences which were introduced under the Online Safety Act include sending messages threatening death or serious harm and sending a message with false information to cause harm.

Police forces recorded 41,064 threatening communication offences and 6,541 false communication offences as of the end of June.

The End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW) said the number of recorded cyber-flashing crimes “shows growing awareness” of the offence but added “more is needed beyond criminalisation”.

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 under-represent the scale of cyber-flashing because 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 takedowns, 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.”