“Jonas would like to share a photo with you,” suddenly appeared on my mobile phone display. I was sitting in the ICE on the way to vacation, my child across from me with his Bluetooth headphones on. I had just put him on an audio book when the hint appeared. Why would anyone want to send me anything? I looked around the compartment, but everyone else seemed engrossed in their laptops, cell phones, and books, or daydreaming about the passing scenery. I wondered if maybe Jonas wanted to send me something useful? I selected “accept” and a photo of an erect penis appeared on my phone. How does that feel? Definitely different than Jonas might have imagined in his completely twisted erotic fantasies.
Getting dickpics from strangers unsolicited isn’t sexy, it’s abusive and obnoxious. Equally, someone can send me a photo of their anus – either way, I wish I could erase the sight not only from my phone but also from my mind. But as if social media harassment wasn’t bad enough, it’s now becoming more common for strangers to AirDrop such photos in public places, like trains. With AirDrop, iPhone users who are no more than nine meters apart, according to Apple, can exchange data. That means Jonas was very close to me on the train, maybe watching me open the file. A scary idea!
Jonas doesn’t know for sure who I am. But he can find out using various clues: For example, he can make sure to only send his dickpics to people with female first names in the cell phone setting. I actually had my full name on it. Then he can scan his surroundings for female people who are holding an iPhone – and finally observe their faces. Big eyes, then angry face, looking around. Here we go, Anne Dittmann.
The sender can hardly be traced back. Unless you catch them “cyberflashing” in the act, that’s what happened to a man named Larry in June of this year. He had airdropped a photo of his penis to all passengers, including minors, on a domestic flight in the United States. Two seats down, a passenger who had also received the photo saw Larry selecting more iPhones for AirDrop. Shortly thereafter, a flight attendant called the police and took Larry away. Not only did he have to spend two days in prison, he also had to answer in court. Also, thanks to the passenger, his face is now more famous on the internet than his dick pic.
A passenger who received a photo of “Larry” reported him directly to the flight crew
Unfortunately, the AirDrop function is now also being abused in schools. A teacher wrote to me: “Students first rename their devices, in the most perfidious case to the names of classmates, and send to ‘all devices nearby’. Pornographic content, swastikas, videos with anti-disabled or homophobic content. You can never trace it back to anyone.”
To this day I don’t know who Jonas is. Since then I’ve been on the train for several more hours. On this ride, “Raven Brian”, “Jamie” and “iphone 13 pro” wanted to send me photos. I rejected all of them and ended up changing my iPhone name to “A” – gender neutral. A friend then gave me the tip to set up AirDrop so that only my contacts can send me data or to deactivate it completely and only use it when I really need it. Both are very easy and only take a few seconds.
Anne Dittmann is a freelance journalist and author from Berlin.
