What motivates someone to send pornographic content to someone else, who didn’t ask for it, and doesn’t want it? Is the producer of this content expecting the recipient to settle in with a frozen coke and popcorn and enjoy a screening of unwanted and unsolicited pornographic content? Importantly, at what point if any, has the sender (also referred to as the producer) considered possible impacts on those they’ve targeted and, the legalities/ethics around consent for the recipient, and those in the images or video?
We’re not talking about aspects of ‘sexting’ in general in this article – we’re talking about the activity of someone knowingly sending unsolicited pornographic content to someone else. It happens a lot according to different groups – from the unwanted ‘dick pic’ sent around at school and beyond, to those using dating sites. The spotlight is not singularly on males, as others participate also.
There are numbers of reasons why someone participates in this type of activity. They may be motivated by the premise it could lead to sexual activity. It can be a strategy of groomers. It may be seen as amusing and for simply for ‘jokes and kicks’. There’s those who may have been dared, or they like to provoke. Perhaps they’ve been pressured or were just curious about the experience.
While there’s a myriad of reasons someone chooses to send unsolicited sexual content, it is a form of sexual exploitation and centers on the sender’s interests only. This makes this not okay and possibly illegal, irrespective of how the recipient may respond.
We can’t ‘un-see’ something we’ve clicked on or opened – we’re stuck with processing this content alongside other factors such as our own dispositions, values, experiences, and any history that may be exist between the sender, the recipient, and those depicted in the explicit content. Some may just delete this type of content and move on, some might enjoy the content, but these should not be the ‘expected’ responses a recipient ‘ought to take’. It’s not acceptable behaviour. It’s selfish, in that it serves the interests and intentions of self (the sender) first and foremost. It is an imbalance of power.
We recently learned through media that a Member of Parliament had engaged in sending unsolicited pornographic content, to more than one younger recipient. This all surfaced through a concerned parent calling this action out, and clearly it was important to this family to calibrate this behaviour for a number of reasons. Past incidents have since been reported after an appeal was made for any other recipients to come forward.
While the recent ‘outing’ has put not only the person into headlines, it’s also put a spotlight on this inappropriate activity. One positive aspect is the opportunity to unpack rights and responsibilities around communications online in the New Zealand context. We have legislation that can help in cases involving ‘harmful digital communications’, where there’s been an intention to ‘harm’ an individual through digital communications, and where considerable distress or harm has or could likely result from the digital communication.
The Harmful Digital Communications Act (2015), underpinned by ten principles, has got some legs to make a difference in some cases. There are thresholds and while something may be harmful to an individual, it may not meet these. However, through contacting Netsafe and reporting something that is ‘not okay’ happening online, measures and steps can be taken to remove content, or ‘nudge’ the producer of harmful online content to remove it, and/or to stop. The ten principles provide guidance as to what is harmful and not okay when communicated digitally.
In looking ahead, and thinking about our younger generation, we have an opportunity to encourage our young people to think about what they do online, and to foster respectful and empathetic dispositions in how they engage and interact.
It’s not only not okay to send unsolicited sexual content to someone, it may also be illegal. It’s opportune for families to chat about rights and responsibilities online – that we have the right to enjoy and confidently use the online space and digital tools in respectful and positive ways, and in-turn, we have a responsibility to respect others’ rights to these also.
As families, let’s continue to draw on values important to us, and chat often with our children about how these can be expressed offline and online – hopefully helping to create a groundswell of support for a kinder, safer and more respectful online culture that’s driven by our younger generations so that these types of actions may become more outliers in the future.