You would want to press criminal charges for a dick pic? I never really understood who that hurt, especially when it is adult to adult. I've had them sent to me before and it never really bothered me.
How is it any different whether it's in person or in pixels?
Do you honestly think you should be able to go up to anyone in public and wave your genitals in their face, that that should be legal? Because I don't see a big difference.
I believe that it's right and proper to maintain a certain level of public decency and enforce that by criminal law. And today in 2019 in New York City (where I live), that means being topless or dressing risque in public is OK... but that exposing yourself or having sex in public is not. That seems like a pretty reasonable line.
A dick pic is just that, a picture of a penis. I'm not sure what we're enforcing when we ban other people from exposing themselves to others is 'showing genitals to others' but rather 'behaving very sexually aggressive towards someone else'. And you can't really argue that with an anonymous dick pic.
Of course dick pics are rude, but arguing they are just the same as exposing yourself in public seems ingenuous
A knife?
A baseball bat?
... carried by a little leaguer in his team photo?
Where is that line drawn?
</rhetorical>
Those people have no realistic fear that he could get into the train or get in anyones face at that point.
Saying there's no difference reads like an anthropological report of a visit to an isolated tribe which is amazed by the people living in the little TV box.
You start wondering which passenger sent you the picture.
"Is this person looking for a reaction in order to identify me?"
"Will they follow me outside?"
"Should I be worried about being attacked"?
"Is it me? Should I not wear this shirt anymore? Do I look like I'm asking for it?"
"Perhaps I should call the police just in case? What if the police laugh at me?"
"Should I skip my station in case I'm followed and that person wants to find out where I live?"
"Is it that person who sent it? I commute with them daily. Should I be worried? Should I change my commute schedule?"
Overall, not an experience that you want forced upon you.
That does not mean that it's a light situation. In Canada, that is a criminal offence.
Indecent acts
173. (1) Everyone who wilfully does an indecent act in a public place in the presence of one or more persons, or in any place with intent to insult or offend any person,
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years; or
(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction and is liable to imprisonment for a term of not more than six months.Maybe not even use messaging or E-Mail and stay at home just in case.
It's one thing to send empty death threats online. It's another to push your genitals on someone who's within 30 feet of you (AirDrop's range). This is the last thing that I'd want to receive at night while commuting in a dirty bus or while walking back home in the dark alone.
Yes, disabling the feature is a solution. However, I'll bet that most people are not aware that they have it on or don't suspect that it can be a vector of attack.
The problem here is people abusing of the system. Don't blame the victim for it. If anything, blame Apple for not explaining the feature better or for a not allowing to keep the feature to "everyone" and disable image previews.
The likely scenario is trolling by sending pictures, not a rapist mentally torturing their next victim before pouncing on her.
Criminalizing this will stop neither trolls nor rapists. The former because it's almost impossible to tell who did it, the latter because they're rapists.