Earlier this year, the government announced plans to make the sharing of intimate images without consent a ‘priority offence’ under its Online Safety Act. The move – reiterating the legal requirement that social media platforms proactively remove and stop this material or face fines – is a step in the right direction. But what is an ‘intimate’ image? And, could the question mark surrounding this be a loophole for further objectification of women and girls online?
“We define an ‘intimate image’ as an image that is either sexual, nude, partially nude, or of toileting,” the Law Commission says, adding: “The definition of ‘intimate’ should exclude images where they only depict something that is ordinarily seen on a public street.” Taking that into account, of all the images I encountered in my investigation, there are very few that would satisfy the government’s ‘intimate’ image criteria.
A quick scroll through the ‘Vinted Thots’ Reddit thread is evidence of that. Numerous posts are labelled ‘Not Safe For Work’, yet when I click on them, I see innocuous images being sexualised to an extreme degree. In one, a woman (whose face has been partially cropped out) wears a white top with blue jeans. Her nipples protrude slightly through the top, but there’s no nudity, no cleavage, no exposed breasts – by the government’s definition, there’s nothing ‘intimate’ about this image. Regardless, one comment on the post reads: “Buy it, wank with it, and return it.”
Other posts show women wearing what could be described as more ‘revealing’ outfits – mini dresses, crop tops, bikinis etc. There’s nothing inherently sexual about the images I find. They resemble those you might upload to an Instagram Story, and they’ve clearly been shared on Vinted to show how an item fits IRL.
Instead, they’re being used as an excuse to point the finger. “Don’t post yourself on Vinted like that,” is one comment I read in response to a woman seeking advice in a Reddit thread. “You need to take some accountability,” another one asserts, “that is a choice you are making, and the result will be that creeps will find those photos.”
“It’s completely outrageous to suggest that women are to blame for their Vinted images being abused, and it is just another form of victim blaming,” Not Your Porn’s Elena replies when I tell her about some of the comments I’ve read.
“No one is responsible for their own abuse,” agrees Rebecca Hitchen, Head of Policy and Campaigns at the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW). “Responses to abuse that tell women and girls to change their behaviour online or ‘come offline’ are not only unrealistic in an era in which our lives are largely lived online, but wrongly place the burden on women to limit their freedoms due to abuse.”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, even when women aren’t sharing images of themselves, they’re still being sexualised without consent. “I uploaded a photo of some heels to Vinted and had someone ask if I’ve ‘ever inserted a heel into myself?’” says Chloe, another woman I connect with.
During our conversation, the 35-year-old recalls being offered “extra ££” to model underwear she’d uploaded to the selling platform. In a different exchange, a man asked if she wanted to receive images of him masturbating over her uploads. “You assume the other people on the app are sellers or buyers like you,” she tells me. “But after my encounters, I believe Vinted is attracting some users who sign up to satisfy fetishes and sexual desires.”
All of the women I spoke to reported their concerns to Vinted and, while the platform did take steps to rectify these issues, Maya, Deimantė, and Chloe say not enough is being done. “There needs to be more of an authentication process,” Chloe stresses. “Users can confirm an account by email alone, so if they’re banned all they need is a new email address. Telephone numbers should be linked to accounts to stop banned members from easily creating another.”
