Cyber-flashing: ‘I get explicit messages every day’

Fitness influencer Elle Edwards has spoken to the BBC about dealing with explicit private messages and cyber-flashing – the non-consensual sending of pictures and videos of a person’s genitals.

She said that she and many of her peers are forced to deal with this form of abuse daily in their comments and DMs.

On Wednesday the Law Commission released recommendations proposing that cyber-flashing and abusive online messages be banned by the government via a “harm-based offence”. This means there would be less focus on whether images are offensive, and more on the possible harm that could result to the victim.

Video journalist Larissa Kennelly