A 39-year-old British man was sentenced to more than a year in prison on Tuesday for sending unsolicited photos of his genitals to a 15-year-old girl and a woman in her 60s, British media reported. Essex Police. The teenage girl was reportedly “overwhelmed and crying” guardian.
Nicholas Hawkes admitted two counts of “sending photographs or films of genitals to cause alarm, distress or humiliation”. Hawkes sent the photos to the girl and woman via Whatsapp and Apple iMessage, although it is unclear whether he personally knew the victim.
Hawkes is the first person in the UK to be charged over the unsolicited nudity provisions of the new Cyber Security Act, which was passed last year and comes into force on January 31. Hawkes was sentenced to 66 weeks in prison, approximately one year and three months, and, according to police, was already on probation for “contact and sexual conduct with a child under 16” at the time of the offences. British Broadcasting Corporation.
The Online Safety Bill has been controversial from the start as it contains many provisions that digital rights groups oppose, including new age verification requirements Internet porn consumers and new requirements forcing companies to do away with end-to-end message encryption.Apple and other tech companies signed a letter Last year UK lawmakers were urged to reconsider the law, as end-to-end encryption is an important tool for keeping messages between activists and journalists safe.
But largely uncontroversial aspects of the new legislation include a ban on unsolicited nudity, especially those sent to children. Essex Police stressed that people sometimes think they can hide behind the internet while committing various crimes, but this is clearly a very naive idea.
“Offenders may believe that by committing crimes online they are less likely to be caught, but this is not the case. Cyber flashing has a detrimental impact on victims and we will continue to investigate all reports of this crime,” Detective Chief Inspector James Gray said in a statement Publish online.
“My main message here is to the perpetrators who think it is acceptable to send these unsolicited photos without permission. This is not the case and I ask those who think it is acceptable to reflect on their actions.”