News hardware Cyberbullying: on Instagram, dick pics are almost over!
A real scourge on social networks, in the same way as insults and threats, online exhibitionism is at the heart of the concerns of regulatory authorities and associations for the protection against harassment. To fight against these practices, Instagram has decided to act.
70% of young women have already received an unsolicited dick pic
If the phenomenon of exhibitionism is as old as the world, it has taken on a scale never seen since the appearance of the Internet and social networks in particular. The image of the old exhibitionist waiting in the forest for young people to pass by, to make way for uninhibited perverts from all walks of life.
In a study dating from 2019 and relayed by our colleagues on the site
terrafemina
at the time, already, 70% of women between the ages of 18 and 54 said they had already received an unsolicited dick pic from men they knew or not.
Already present via the instant messaging services of social network applications (Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, Messenger, etc.), the problem has increased in recent years with dating applications (Tinder, Meetic, Happn, Adopteunmec, etc.), which some use in a roundabout way to achieve their ends.
But the big question, beyond the fact that human nature is sometimes (often?) twisted, is why and how did we get here? What is going on in the minds of these men to allow themselves to send a photo of their sex without warning?
Again, a study has tried to answer this question and the motivations of these compulsive exhibitionists are as follows:
- 44% do it to receive the equivalent in return
- 33% to find a partner
- 27% by excitement
- 9% for experiencing a sense of dominance
Instagram aims to protect women by filtering out pornographic photos
Currently, Instagram, which is part of the Meta group, just like Facebook, Messenger, Whatshapp or the Meta Quest, is working on a new algorithm, based on artificial intelligence, capable of detecting inappropriate elements of a photo without however having access to photos on its servers.
The algorithm, if it detects the slightest suspicious thing, can then decide to blur the image before offering it to you, it is up to you to open it or not, in full knowledge of the facts.
If the development is still in its infancy, Instagram could only be a start before a more global deployment on all the group’s applications.
Beyond the trauma suffered by the victims, this exhibitionism 2.0 is obviously prohibited by law, in the same way as any other form of exhibitionism, and the sending unsolicited dick pics is punishable by article 232-22 of the penal code and can lead to penalties of one year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros. This can be aggravated if the recipient is a minor and if one falls into harassment.
