Bill would make “cyberflashing” a crime

Concord Monitor                                                                                                     January 22,2022

A re-introduced House Bill would criminalize the practice of sending explicit images of oneself to another person without the recipient’s consent, making the practice of “cyber-flashing” a misdemeanor. 

​Lyn Schollett, executive director of the New Hampshire Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence, testified in support of HB 1388 on Friday. Schollett said the Coalition worked to develop the newest bill’s language.

She described the bill as solving a “loophole” in the law that punishes the sending of unwanted sexual images to kids under 16, but not to older teens or adults. 

“We believe that it's appropriate for this to be an offense, but at a lower level than it would be if the images were sent to a minor,” she said. “Receiving an unsolicited sexual image is disarming. It can be frightening, it can be alarming, and it also is often used by abusers as part of the grooming process,” Schollett said. Grooming refers the process of slowly gaining the trust of a victim as a precursor to abuse. 

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