A new study has revealed that Black women are twice as likely to experience cyber-flashing than their white counterparts. Cyber-flashing is defined as the act of using digital means, usually messaging or social media apps, to send pornographic images of oneself to another without their consent. Cyber-flashing can have disastrous effects on the victim, causing them distress, making them feel unsafe and endangering their long-term well-being.
The latest study, into cyber-flashing titled, “The exposé on women’s and marginalized genders’ social media experiences,” builds on a 2022 study that revealed that more than a fifth of girls and women in the United Kingdom have been cyber-flashed in the year prior. This recent study however goes even deeper. It found that 50 percent of the Black women who were part of the 2,000 women surveyed about their cyber-flashing experiences said they had indeed been cyber-flashed. This is in comparison to 26 percent of white women who shared the same traumatic experience.
A Grim State
Olivia DeRamus is the founder of Communia, the new social media platform that commissioned the study. Communia is an app dedicated to women and marginalized genders as it “prioritises wellbeing and social health”.
DeRamus, while speaking to the results from the study said, “This report reflects how women of colour also face system racism digitally, hyper sexualisation, increased risk of abuse – as well as how little is being done to protect their wellbeing on platforms like Facebook, which we can see is rated significantly higher as an unsafe space for Black women than White women in this report.
DeRamus continued, “It makes sense then that the need for a safe space online for marginalized genders feels even more urgent for Black women at 91 per cent versus the 80 per cent of white women.”
Experts have cited that thorough social education on the matter, rather than simply enacting criminalizing laws, will be the best way to curb the issue. In the United States, some states including, California, Texas, and Virginia have already pushed to criminalize cyber-flashing