‘People don’t realise the harm it can spark’: Emily Atack on terrifying experience of cyber flashing

Emily Atack has once again spoken out about the prevalence of cyber flashing, saying she sees “10 d**k pics she doesn’t want to see before breakfast”.

The former Inbetweeners star recently backed a campaign to make cyber flashing a crime, and said that receiving so many abusive and explicit messages from total strangers on a daily basis is isolating and unnerving.

Cyber flashing is when a person digitally sends an unsolicited sexual image, usually of their genitals, to someone via AirDrop - a file-sharing tool available on iPhones - through Bluetooth, or over wifi.

In 2021, dating app Bumble conducted research showing that 48 per cent of women aged between 18 and 24 had received an unwanted explicit photo in the past year - and one in four women believe the practice has become more common during the pandemic.

Additionally, a study published by academics at University College London and the University of Kent at the end of last year found that three in four young women have been sent sexual images on social media.

Last month, the Conservative MP Fay Jones warned there is evidence to show cyber flashing is a “gateway offence to more serious acts of violence”.

Prosecutors have struggled to convict people for the act of cyber flashing, as there has been no law in England and Wales which directly addresses it, although in Scotland cyber flashing has been illegal since 2009.

However it’s expected that people who send unsolicited explicit sexual images will now face up to two years in prison, and be made to sign the sex offenders register, under a law change which will include cyber flashing in the 2003 Sexual Offences Act.

It’s a bid to reflect penalties for indecent exposure in public, although it remains unclear when exactly this law will become applicable in England and Wales.

Speaking last week on the Plot Twist podcast, the 32-year-old actor said: “Before breakfast, I’ve seen about 10 penises I have not asked to see. It’s not normal, is it?

“People don’t realise the harm and the triggering it can spark - where else you take it in your mind.”

She went on to say: “If someone sends me a sexually explicit message, I’m like, ‘Why have they said that to me?’ It makes you question everything you are and why you’re single – and suddenly, you drive yourself crazy.

“It’s not just about seeing the message and going, ‘Ugh, I don’t want to see your hairy ball sack, thanks’.”

She then added: “If it was just that, I would get over it really quickly as I have seen loads of horrible hairy ball sacks in my life.”

Previously, the actor has also spoken out about receiving these types of messages; last year, she told UNILAD about the terrifying encounters she has previously had with men, both in person and online.

When asked how many sexual messages she has had sent to her, Atack said: “I receive, on a daily basis... oh, I mean, it’s hundreds, hundreds. I receive hundreds of messages.”

The actor went on to read out some of the indecent messages she has received from total strangers.

“I’ve never said these out loud, it’s quite daunting sort of saying them on camera,” Emily said.

She added: “And when I get these messages, I do always look on their profile to see what - I’m intrigued to see what sort of person they would be, what life they have.

“Sometimes it’s completely anonymous, no photo, and they’ve obviously just created an account to just say all these awful things to God knows how many poor women.

“It goes from teenage boys, to middle-aged men, to really old men, old, single men that are probably desperately lonely, and older men, who are married with children, and they have daughters in their profile pictures.”

Such an influx of sexualised messages and harassment often leaves Atack feeling scared in her own home.

She points out that “the horrible thing about it is that nobody is around to say to the person, ‘Oi! Don’t f***ing do that, that’s horrific.”

“It’s just, they’re allowed to just do it and I’m subjected to it, on my own, in my home. I don’t have a partner, I’m by myself, and it does make me feel scared to live on my own”, she adds.