When Clare McGlynn and Kelly Johnson decided to co-author Cyberflashing: Recognising Harms, Reforming Laws, their objective was clear: They wanted the law changed to make cyberflashing a criminal offence.
In March 2022, merely a year after publication, upskirting and cyberflashing became specific criminal offences in Northern Ireland, following evidence given by McGlynn to the Stormont Assembly Justice Committee. In the same month, the UK government announced they too wanted to change the law on cyberflashing and proposed including it in the Online Safety Bill. Whilst still going through the UK parliament, once the bill is adopted sending an unsolicited photo or film of a person’s genitals will become a criminal offence in the UK too.
Win
Getting the UK government to recognise cyberflashing as a significant issue that requires legislation has been a massive step forward that McGlynn and Johnson’s work has contributed towards. With the Online Safety Bill due to return to the House of Common in September 2022, the focus now is on keeping up the pressure to ensure it is adopted.
The change to the law in Northern Ireland however is a huge win for McGlynn and the coalition of politicians, policy makers and women’s organisations who have been working tirelessly on issues of online abuse.
“As a lawyer, my work has been around the gaps in criminal law, particular around online abuse and violence against women and girls. Criminal law in general has historically been drafted by men for men, so women’s experiences have always had to be ‘slotted in’.”
“This is certainly the case with online abuse. Technology and the ways in which it is used to abuse and harass women is novel and doesn’t fit easily within the criminal law as it stands. My work is around how we change and shape criminal law to reflect women’s experiences of harm and abuse.”
Landmark
Putting the case for cyberflashing as a criminal act into a book format was an important landmark in the process of bringing about changes to the law.
As the first comprehensive analysis of what cyberflashing is, the book brought together all the information about how common it is, what the harms are, what women and girls are experiencing, and where the gaps are in the criminal law. It looked at how the issue is being addressed around the world and what could be done within the UK to respond to this growing area of concern.
“Getting across the prevalence of cyberflashing and the significance of it was important. Lots of online abuse can get minimised and not taken seriously. That’s even more the case with cyberflashing.”
Failing Women
Publishing a book on cyberflashing within a university press was a key aspect of the positioning of a subject hitherto more readily talked about within the media and pages of women’s magazines. McGlynn says:
“We brought together all the first person narratives gathered via journalists, put them in a database and drew down the commonality of the narratives. Having a book that was rigorously evidence based situated cyberflashing within a number of serious scholarly discussions, including how much the criminal law is failing women.”
“I approached Bristol University Press because of the speed of publication. Being able to publish fast was important as this was a fast moving area and we wanted to get something out ASAP. Moreover BUP are committed to sharing this knowledge and using books for change.”
Books for change
The online launch event, attended by hundreds of people, became part of the overall campaign to change the law in the UK. Attended by Maria Miller MP, Sophie Gallagher, journalist, and a number of women’s organisations it was one of many awareness raising events. McGlynn says:
“The academic research is the foundation but I‘m very much about sharing that work with others to build partnerships and coalitions to go about changing things.”
In addition to speaking to the Northern Ireland Justice Committee, McGlynn has worked closely with the End Violence against Women coalition, Refuge and other organisations, all on the broad area of online abuse, including cyberflashing.
Consent based
There’s still work to be done in order to get the Online Safety Bill passed in the UK, particularly on the issue of how comprehensive it needs to be. Over the past few months McGlynn has been working with a number of organisations and MPs to put forward different amendments to make the law consent based. McGlynn says:
“We’ve won the argument about the need for criminal action, now it’s just about the form it takes.”
A key aspect of the debate is to what extent the motive of the sender should be taken into consideration. This discussion focuses around the intent to cause harm whereas McGlynn and colleagues advocate a law that is based on the consent of the recipient.
International View
Taking an international view and looking at the implementation of laws on cyberflashing in other parts of the world has been a key aspect of McGlynn and Johnson’s work. Their thinking and proposals for change have been influenced in particular by the United States.
“A number of the states, Texas first, introduced legislation on cyberflashing based on consent. In other words, if you send someone a penis image without their consent that’s it. The UK government’s current argument is that it’s only wrong if the person sent the image to cause distress.”
Whilst there are currently two or three laws that could be used to prosecute cyberflashing, they are limited, hard to prove and unlikely to be taken seriously by the police. Having a law in place that explicitly covers cyberflashing as a criminal offence will be a massive step forward for women and girls. McGlynn says:
“This kind of regulation frees up the speech of women and minorities and others. At the moment our freedom of speech is effectively curtailed because online abuse is so common and prevalent. Better regulation enables greater freedoms for marginalised voices.”
Rebecca Megson-Smith is a writer and writing coach, founder of Ridley Writes.
Cyberflashing by Clare McGlynn and Kelly Johnson is available on the Bristol University Press website. Order here for £ 12.99.
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