Sending unsolicited nudes via AirDrop might soon be illegal in NYC
A bill introduced to the New York City Council this week seeks to address the growing problem of "cyber flashing," or the act of sending explicit photos to strangers through file sharing technology like Apple's AirDrop.
Thanks to iPhone's popularity -- and AirDrop's behavior -- Apple products are prime candidates for exploitation. The wireless protocol is designed to quickly connect to, and move content between, two supporting iOS or Mac devices.
Unlike other systems, AirDrop presents a preview of incoming photos and video, which users can then accept or decline. Cyber flashers take advantage of the automated preview feature to present inappropriate material to victims.
Further, AirDrop allows users to send files anonymously, as devices are identified by their user-defined name. An iOS user, for example, can easily modify their device name in the operating system's Settings menu.
Though AirDrop is by default restricted to a user's contacts list, the feature can be configured to allow connections with all nearby devices. Once modified, discoverability settings are saved, meaning a device is perpetually set to one of three options: "Receiving Off," "Contacts Only" or "Everyone."
A decidedly modern form of sexual harassment, cyber flashing is typically conducted in high occupancy spaces like trains and buses, where people are often seen with their eyes glued to mobile device screens. The more users in a given area, the more targets there are for perpetrators who use crowd cover to remain anonymous.
"In the old days, you had to have a long trench coat and good running shoes," New York City Councilman Joseph Borelli said in a statement to The New York Times. "Technology has made it significantly easier to be a creep."
Councilmen Borelli, Donovan Richards, Justin Brannan and Alan Maisel are co-sponsors of a bipartisan anti-flashing bill introduced on Wednesday. If passed, the legislation would make it illegal to "send an unsolicited sexually explicit video or image to another person with intent to harass, annoy or alarm such other person," punishable by up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine.
"Keep your pic in your pants," Richards said. "If you do it, the message we are sending is that the repercussion is a fine or jail time."
As AppleInsider explained last year, users can protect themselves from becoming cyber flashing victims by limiting AirDrop discoverability to known contacts.
To do so, open Control Center on any device running iOS 12 by swiping down from the top right corner of the screen (iPhone X and newer) or up from the bottom of the screen (iPhone 8 and older). Press down on the Bluetooth icon, or press and hold, to reveal additional connectivity controls, tap on the AirDrop icon and select Contacts Only or Receiving Off.
Alternatively, the same AirDrop settings can be found under General > AirDrop in the Settings app.
Thanks to iPhone's popularity -- and AirDrop's behavior -- Apple products are prime candidates for exploitation. The wireless protocol is designed to quickly connect to, and move content between, two supporting iOS or Mac devices.
Unlike other systems, AirDrop presents a preview of incoming photos and video, which users can then accept or decline. Cyber flashers take advantage of the automated preview feature to present inappropriate material to victims.
Further, AirDrop allows users to send files anonymously, as devices are identified by their user-defined name. An iOS user, for example, can easily modify their device name in the operating system's Settings menu.
Though AirDrop is by default restricted to a user's contacts list, the feature can be configured to allow connections with all nearby devices. Once modified, discoverability settings are saved, meaning a device is perpetually set to one of three options: "Receiving Off," "Contacts Only" or "Everyone."
A decidedly modern form of sexual harassment, cyber flashing is typically conducted in high occupancy spaces like trains and buses, where people are often seen with their eyes glued to mobile device screens. The more users in a given area, the more targets there are for perpetrators who use crowd cover to remain anonymous.
"In the old days, you had to have a long trench coat and good running shoes," New York City Councilman Joseph Borelli said in a statement to The New York Times. "Technology has made it significantly easier to be a creep."
Councilmen Borelli, Donovan Richards, Justin Brannan and Alan Maisel are co-sponsors of a bipartisan anti-flashing bill introduced on Wednesday. If passed, the legislation would make it illegal to "send an unsolicited sexually explicit video or image to another person with intent to harass, annoy or alarm such other person," punishable by up to a year in jail or a $1,000 fine.
"Keep your pic in your pants," Richards said. "If you do it, the message we are sending is that the repercussion is a fine or jail time."
As AppleInsider explained last year, users can protect themselves from becoming cyber flashing victims by limiting AirDrop discoverability to known contacts.
To do so, open Control Center on any device running iOS 12 by swiping down from the top right corner of the screen (iPhone X and newer) or up from the bottom of the screen (iPhone 8 and older). Press down on the Bluetooth icon, or press and hold, to reveal additional connectivity controls, tap on the AirDrop icon and select Contacts Only or Receiving Off.
Alternatively, the same AirDrop settings can be found under General > AirDrop in the Settings app.
Comments
its sexual harassment.
Whether you expose yourself, show someone a poloroid of you exposing yourself, or show someone a digital capture of you exposing yourself, it’s all the same thing regardless of what platform you use to do it.
Imagine some dude doing that to your wife or daughter. That kinda of thing isn’t trivial. Personally, I’d at the very least break some structural integrity of someone harassing my family that way. M
but the law needs to handle it. The thought that it isnt currently illegal but dropping Trou is - is just absurd.
Why do you think AirDrop should be anonymous. I disagree entirely.
I think the device identifier should be sent along with the drop and then the police should be able to get the owner of the device from Apple (through a court order).
I wrote a short story for class once that featured a serial flasher. The feedback I got was that the character lacked shock value.
I said, “But he’s a flasher.”
Women in the class shrugged. So I asked how many of them had been flashed.
Out of eight women – all of them. Only two of them had only been flashed just once.
And now these degenerates don’t even have to undo their zipper? Now they can do it without risk of being laughed at, or a good swift kick to the castanets?
Nope, Airdrop is too creep-friendly. Under what circumstances would you Airdrop a complete stranger?
I fully support the privacy thing, but at the same time, people needed to be protected from this sort of nonsense. Perhaps it would be better to prevent anonymous sending altogether. You can only send to a person if you’re in their contact list.
Secondly AirDrop keeps a log file of all activities - including the sender's information (even if the recipient does not accept the transfer). Law enforcement can use the basic console app to pull up the details necessary to identify the perpetrator's phone.
This is a much better idea. The winner is only showing previews from people you know.
Hate to break your reality also but females are far more perverted than men. I myself have been flashed by females and I don't know a single male friend who hasn't either. Ever heard of prostitutes? Shorts? Yoga pants? Strip clubs? Thongs? P*rn? Of course you haven't. Females are these innocent, sexually oblivious beings walking the Earth.
I agree we don't need another law, we already have millions of them. Apple needs to handle the data differently and I'm with the first poster, I've never seen this happen despite "half" the population doing this.
The harassment victim then calls the police and reports the IP and the EIMI. The carrier (on the request from the police) identifies the owner. The perpetrator is thus identified.
NYC has cameras in many places. The police reviews the camera footage to prove that the perpetrator and the victim in fact entered the subway around the time when the incident happened.
Case proven.
I think the punishment should be the blacklisting of the IEMI along with the fine. This way the phone would no longer work on any carrier.
All Apple needs to do is show a prompt that says "SoAndSo wants to send you a picture". You accept or not.
That's is.
I was on the subway a year or so ago doing something on my iPhone and suddenly a picture of a dick filled my screen.
Needless to say, it was shocking and rather embarrassing.
Once I got rid of the photo, it was actually kind of funny. But, not something to repeat!
That was the LAST time I had AirDrop activated on my iPhone!