'Nudes' - Getting the balance right!

March 2024

The sending of Intimate Images is always a difficult subject to cover, especially within schools. At 50 years of age, I have been lucky enough to wear a number of different hats over the time I have been an advocate for online safety. Those hats include, Cyber Crime Police Officer, Husband, Educator, AFL Coach, Mentor, Dad and Uncle.

In the fifteen years I have been working at the coalface of online juvenile crime (victims and offenders), the sending and receiving of Intimate Images by teenagers has remained relatively constant. Though percentages do fluctuate regularly, I do not believe we will ever get to a point of 0% distribution. I do not like saying that, but I have to be a realist!

Please don't get me wrong; I do offer precise education as to the risks sending such content can have on people (especially a sender), but the simple facts are, teens make errors of judgement, get caught up in a moment and quite often, they send without assessing the risks.

With that in mind, it is extremely important education to juveniles is balanced and considerate of all aspects of what is a very complex and volatile subject matter.

The "Don't do this and don't do that" approach very rarely works. My continued success and strong popularity with Australian youth reflects that evaluation precisely.

Having said that, it is also important never to concede defeat on the subject, condone illegal behaviour or ignore discussing legislation, simply because teens may be sending or requesting intimate images.

In some sectors, I have heard teens being advised to ensure their faces are cropped out and identifiable information is removed before they send their images. This advice can be dangerous and quite often can give a sender a false sense of assurance they will not be identified.

As such, a balanced approach is the key and the best way to describe that approach is RESPECT!

I was recently impressed with an article by Giselle Woodley and Lelia Green from Edith Cowan University - HERE which covered off on this balanced approach quite openly and respectfully. It aligns in a number of areas with my approach to the subject of Intimate Images within my schools across Australia.

Over the past six years, I have personally surveyed over 50 thousand Australian teenagers aged 14 to 17 years.

I herein quote numbers from my most recent surveys conducted in 2023 with 4000 students across Australian high schools (4 private & 3 public).

40% of teens admitted to sending an intimate image, with 82% of those teenagers sending the image to a romantic partner to whom they were in a relationship with.

12% of teenagers admitted sending an intimate image to someone they were not in a relationship with, but did know personally, whereas 6% of teenagers admitted sending an intimate image to someone they did not know (random) either online or via social media (mainly SnapChat).

Reflecting on the above numbers, the vast majority of intimate images (94%) sent by teenagers are in fact sent to someone they know and trust!

As such, the words Trust, Respect and Morality are used much more in a Surf Online Safe presentation than the words Crime or Law or the statement, Sex Offender Register!

In my presentation to Year 9 & 10 students, I reference a police investigation I was involved in where the 17 year old male creator of an Image Board website was requesting other males to share the nudes of their ex-girlfriends.

He prefaced the request with the sentence "Keen on ANYTHING from XXXXX Senior High School, XXXXX Catholic College or XXXXX College."

That disgusting and immoral sentence is the foundation of my presentation.

I explain to students that a female victim of this abhorrent male, had her intimate image shared to the website by her ex-boyfriend. As a result, her image was downloaded in excess of twelve thousand times. This young girls life was turned upside down because of a betrayal of trust and an utter abuse of respect.

She is not a "thing", she is a person who deserves respect. She is a daughter, a grand-daughter, a sister and an amazing human being, whom I will also add nominated me for Australian of the Year! She was someone I talked out of suicide during a two hour phone call as she sat in her walk-in-robe sobbing, blaming herself for the situation she was in.

Such an example gives me the opportunity not only to touch on the risks of sending intimate images, but also to discuss with all of my audience members subjects such as consent, respect and empathy.

This is done with a clear indication that no matter what side of the 'nudes' scenario you may be sitting, whether you are a sender, recipient, distributor or viewer, the person depicted deserves respect.

They are not simply a picture on a screen!