Young people aged 15 to 25 in Belgium very regularly received unsolicited sexual content online, with half of the girls in this age group indicating they have already received a so-called "dick pic."
A study on the occasion of Safer Internet Day (7 February) found that online sexual violence is a common problem among so-called "digital natives." The most regularly shared pictures are of male genitalia: 37% of young people and half of the girls have received at least one such image. The problem is also more common among those aged 15 to 18 and people in the LGBTQ+ community.
"The results of this study are very enlightening and show that young people face sexual violence at a very early age and that gender and sexual orientation have a significant impact on victimhood or perpetration," said Secretary of State for Equal Opportunities Sarah Schlitz, who commissioned the study.
'Terrible damage'
Schlitz stressed that online sexual violence can cause terrible harm and that younger generations are particularly vulnerable to receiving such content. "Online sexual violence is real and can cause terrible damage, even leading to suicide," she noted.
While most boys and young men felt more guilty and lonely than female victims after receiving an unsolicited "dick pic," most girls and women indicated they were "embarrassed", "angry" or even "outraged" after receiving such non-consensual images. This is also explained by the fact that, in six in ten cases, girls had not asked for such content.
In almost half of all cases, the image was sent by a stranger, a phenomenon that was even more common among female respondents, who were also more likely to get images from people older than them.
While some young people send such images to get similar pictures in return or to "seduce" the recipient, a significant proportion of respondents admit to having "evil intentions" in sending such images, and a quarter noted they do so to harass or intimidate the recipient.
The study also looked into the possession of sexual images, marking the first time in Europe that such an investigation was done. One-fifth of young men and just 9% of young women say they know someone who has nude photos of them. "But it seems that this figure is greatly underestimated," Schlitz noted.
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"Young people are unaware that anyone has such images of them, partly because they have not given their permission for these pictures to be kept." Almost all respondents who indicated having intimate images of others were men, while older respondents were even more likely to have such pictures.
Girls and women were significantly more likely to delete such images, while they were also twice as likely to indicate that they had asked to remove a picture of themselves and that this request was not respected.
Punishable acts?
The majority of young people (up to 79%) said that sending a "dick pic" without consent should be punishable, and favour alternative punishments, such as a course on sexual violence or mediation or compensation.
Three-quarters of respondents agreed that possession of sexual images of someone who no longer wants you to possess them or who never actually gave permission should be prosecuted, while more than 60% thought that possession was already punishable. The respondents believed punishment for non-consensual possession of sexual images should be tougher than that for sending "dick pics."
"These results remind us not only of the need to address these issues at an early stage but also of the need to adopt clear legislation," Schlitz said. Once the new penal code comes into force, online sexual harassment, including sending unwanted explicit photos or doxxing, will be punished more severely, with prison sentences of up to 20 years if the victim is a minor.
