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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Entertainment
Mia O'Hare

Vanessa Feltz 'regularly' receiving unsolicited full frontal photos from men since split

Vanessa Feltz has revealed she receives unsolicited full frontal pictures from men online following her split from Ben Ofeodu.

The TV presenter, 61, announced the end of her 16 year romance with Ben earlier this year as he confirmed he cheated on her eight years ago, and more recently sexted one lady and flirted with another.

Since the split, Vanessa has admitted the unsolicited manhood pics get sent to her "pretty regularly".

"Most of us have experienced that on a pretty regular basis - I know I do, I normally send back a laughing emoji and then I block the person.

Vanessa admitted she gets photos of manhoods sent to her (REX/Shutterstock)
She says it happens 'pretty regularly' (Jed Cullen/Dave Benett/Getty Ima)

"I wouldn't say I enjoy it, on the other hand it's just one of those hazards," she told Love Island star Amy Hart on her TalkTV show.

Amy is currently campaigning for the government to rethink cyberflashing laws as the Online Safety Bill reaches its final stages, having said it left her feeling "violated".

She explained: "It can feel quite violating and also it's taken that choice away from you, it's taken that power away from you and it's a power thing for a lot of them, because they have forcibly made you view that picture.

"There's a lot of men who put them on their Instagram story and then tag a lot of women they want to see it so we're just scrolling through our Instagram story mentions and it'll appear, and then they have a list of who's seen it and get like a kick out of it."

Vanessa admitted she thinks men cyberflash because it is a way of causing distress.

The This Morning star added: "It's to cause pain and shame and disquiet in a total stranger that's done nothing to you whatsoever, nothing to provoke it and I think the knowledge of that is very often the inspiration behind it.

"It's not that they need to be educated that it's not nice, they know it's not nice. That's why they do it."

Vanessa thinks men do it to cause distress (Instagram)
Amy is calling on the government to better understand cyberflashing (Dave Benett/Getty Images)

Vanessa and Amy made their admissions amid concerns the laws around cyberflashing in the Online Safety Bill do not go far enough.

Amy revealed the offence of cyberflashing in the new Online Safety Bill is intent based instead of consent based.

At the moment it has to be proved there was malicious intent and nothing can be done if someone says the unsolicited picture was a joke.

Bumble, UN Women and Grazia have put together a pledge to get people to sign and get the government to change the base so images can only be sent with consent.

Former Love Islander Georgia Harrison has also appeared outside Parliament to call for better online protections for women and girls, following Stephen Bear's conviction.

Alongside charity Refuge, she is calling for a violence against women and girls code of practice to be added to the Online Safety Bill "to ensure social media companies respond to and prevent online violence" against this group.

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