Cyber-flashing is apparently now a thing -- Here's how to avoid receiving dick pics from strangers

There’s a new type of mobile phone crime happening in London, according to the BBC, and it’s been dubbed "cyber-flashing". This, in a nutshell, is when the victim -- a woman in the first reported case of its kind -- receives pictures of a stranger’s genitals on their phone.

The offending photos are received via Apple’s Airdrop feature, and so it only affects iPhone owners.

The BBC report tells how a commuter called Lorraine Crighton-Smith received two penis pictures on her phone during a train journey to work.

"I had Airdrop switched on because I had been using it previously to send photos to another iPhone user --  and a picture appeared on the screen of a man's penis, which I was quite shocked by," Crighton-Smith said. "So, I declined the image, instinctively, and another image appeared, at which [point] I realized someone nearby must be sending them, and that concerned me. I felt violated, it was a very unpleasant thing to have forced upon my screen. I was also worried about who else might have been a recipient, it might have been a child, someone more vulnerable than me. My name on Airdrop says Lorraine so they knew they were sending it to a woman. The images were of a sexual nature and it was distressing".

Crighton-Smith called the British Transport Police, but as the pictures were never accepted, there’s no evidence for the police to go on.

Supt Gill Murray of the BTP said cyber-flashing via Airdrop was "new to us", adding, "Receiving an indecent image from someone you don't know must be very distressing and something we would take very seriously. If it happens to you, our advice would be to remain calm, retain the image and report the matter to police as soon as possible".

While there has only been one reported case to date, it’s possible with the resulting publicity cyber-flashing via Airdrop might become more common.

Preventing your phone from receiving unwanted images from strangers via Airdrop is very straightforward. The feature is set to "Contacts Only" by default and so long as you leave it at that, people you don’t know won’t be able to send you unsolicited pictures. To change the Airdrop settings on an iPhone, swipe up from the bottom of the screen, and tap "Airdrop". Make sure the feature isn’t set to "Everyone". From here you can set it to "Off", if you don’t use the function, or limit it to "Contacts Only".

Photo credit: radFX / Shutterstock.com