Maryland Delegate Introduces Bill Against Cyber-Flashing, Receives Unsolicited Naked Photo

A Maryland delegate from Montgomery County received a naked photo on Monday after introducing a bill intended to give victims of unsolicited, sexually explicit messages legal recourse. 

Chances are, you or someone you know, at some point, has gotten an unsolicited sexually explicit email or social media message. 

Jurisdictions in our area are trying to come up with ways to give victims legal recourse – but as a Maryland delegate from Montgomery County is finding out, the effort can be challenging.

Del. Lesley Lopez thought the direct message she got on her Twitter account from an address she didn’t recognize was about a bill she’d introduced hours before. 

“And I kind of jumped back in my seat,” she said. “I saw that someone who I thought was asking me a question, who might’ve been a constituent, had cyber-flashed me and sent me a photo of him totally nude except for glasses and a hat.”

The bill she had just introduced would provide Maryland victims with something that’s lacking now – the ability to take action. 

“There’s nothing that can be done [now], because it’s not categorized into law as a threat,” Lopez said. 

In fact, most jurisdictions have to rely on indecent exposure laws as the closest thing to codified language dealing with cyber-flashing.

A handful of states, including New Hampshire, Texas, California and Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia, either have laws specifically addressing the issue or are considering them.

“I don’t know how much more obvious it needs to be,” Lopez said. 

In D.C., testimony on cyber-flashing law from an online dating site operator found that nearly half of its female users have been cyber-flashed. 

Addressing it is tough; Lopez had initially introduced a bill to set up specific penalties. 

“We reached out to the attorney general's office to see if we got their buy-in to see if it was constitutional or not. And we got an eight-page letter back saying there was all sorts of complications,” she said. 

So, she’s seeking a task force to look at ways to address it while maintaining constitutional integrity.

In Virginia, it’s considered a kind of trespass; penalties can include damages or a $500 fine, whichever is greater.

Lopez wants to be circumspect, creating an 11-member task force to find out what would work in Maryland. Clearly, she said, it’s a problem, and she’s getting lots of feedback. 

“Someone telling me a story about their child, their intern, their staffer, they might have received one. It’s that common, and we just need to figure out a way to prevent this,” she said.