Federal cyberflashing bill introduced with Bumble endorsement

Dating app Bumble has endorsed the CONSENT Act, a federal cyberflashing bill in the U.S.

Cyberflashing is sending nude images without consent. In a 2021 survey of nearly 1,800 respondents in England and Wales, 48 percent of adults 18-24 said they received a sexual photo they didn't ask for.

The CONSENT Act (Curbing Online Non-consensual Sexually Explicit Nudity Transfers), if passed, would provide legal recourse against individuals who knowingly cyberflashed, whether they used photos altered digitally (like with AI) or not, according to an email Bumble sent to Mashable. Further, the bill would provide compensatory damages and safeguards for the privacy of minors (by allowing a legal guardian to bring about civil action on their behalf, and allowing them to be referred to by their initials).

The CONSENT Act is bipartisan and bicameral, introduced by Representatives Jennifer McClellan (D-VA-04) and Nathaniel Moran (R-TX-01) and Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Steve Daines (R-MT).

For years, Bumble has campaigned for cyberflashing to be illegal in the U.S. and the UK. In April 2023, for example, Bumble said the proposed UK Online Safety Bill wasn't enough to stop cyberflashing, as it's based on whether the sender had harmful intent. The bill later passed, and the Online Safety Act went into effect at the end of January, still with that need to prove harmful intent. This month, 39-year-old Nicholas Hawkes became the first person convicted of cyberflashing in England and Wales.

Stateside, Bumble has supported laws to curb online sexual harassment in Texas, Virginia, and California that have since passed. According to its announcement about the CONSENT Act, Bumble has also helped introduce bills in Maryland, Michigan, New York, Wisconsin, and Washington D.C. In the EU, Bumble has supported amendments to ban cyberflashing as well.

The app has added features to discourage cyberflashing. In 2019, Bumble introduced "Private Detector," which alerts users when someone sends an unsolicited nude photo. In 2022, Bumble made Private Detector open source.

In a 2018 survey commission by Bumble, 96 percent of women were unhappy to receive unsolicited nude images. In the six years since, it's unlikely that's changed.