How to stop unwanted dick pics

WHEN a Sydney’s woman’s innocent response to a photo request on a dating app went horribly wrong she knew there had to be an answer to this troubling issue.

MY ENTIRE Tinder career was fairly short-lived. In my eight weeks I “chatted” to a handful of OK seeming guys but one particular cyber-suitor caught my eye. He was sharply intelligent, keenly witty and more than a little bit cute. We had sizzling repartee. After a week or so of banter, we swapped phone numbers.

He had only one photo on his profile so when I requested to see more he asked if I wanted “arty” ones. I’m trés arty. I love photography. I didn’t think twice about saying yes.

The image I received was not what I’d call arty, however. I’d call it “Still life with erect penis”.

Somewhere along the trail of evolution, flashing your genitals went from being an illegal act performed by seedy men in trench coats to a form of foreplay. Sadly, not everyone got the memo.

In an era where the issue of consent is more debated and struggled for more than ever, sending unsolicited images of your genitals is perplexing at best, and sexual harassment at worst.

Thousands of ‘dick pics’ are posted daily on dating apps around the world but for the most part, women aren’t actually interested in seeing a strange man’s junk.

That said, the electronic transfer of one’s genitals to another person’s cellular device is more common today than ever. And that is a problem, according to Hook Up Dating, an aptly-named dating app that most of its users identify by the acronym, HUD.

“Here at HUD, we appreciate the idea of building sexual tension and chemistry ahead of the first date after all, we are a hook-up dating app, but dick pics turn off our female users,” Darren Shuster, an official spokesman for the company told news.com.au. “We like to give women a choice of whether or not they want to see the dick pic. We’re all adults here.”

How the new blocking technology works. Picture: Supplied/Hook Up Dating

Looking to address the issue, HUD is deploying artificial intelligence developed by Google to identify dicks.

With more than 3.1 million users, Mr Shuster says, the company simply could not hire enough human reviewers to manually identify male reproductive organs, so HUD turned to Google’s Cloud Vision artificial intelligence software to detect explicit adult content.

The technology detects nudes, minors, celebrities, texts in images, and then presents a confidence percentage level. If the confidence level is high it means the AI is more confident in knowing what the image is (e.g. 90 per cent nudity AI’s confidence level).

Dating apps can use this software to help identify adult photos and blur them as they are sent through their messaging system. It will then be up to users whether they reveal the image after seeing an ‘adult content’ warning.

While other companies are currently using the technology for things like detecting pictures of celebrities, it is not believed that any other dating apps are using it at this time. Mr Shuster feels it will soon be utilised by many dating apps who wish to protect the rights of their clientele.

Eventually, it may even be a setting in your phone much like any other preference such as ring tones and vibrate.

Social commentator, and author of Out There; a survival guide for dating in midlife, Kerri Sackville, believes until we can re-educate men, using this technology on dating apps may save women needing to bleach their eyeballs.

“Men are enamoured of their penises. They don’t realise women only like penises when they are attached to someone we like,” she says.

“The first time I was sent a dick pic I laughed and sent back a ‘lol’ to the guy. He was horribly offended. Apparently that’s not how we are meant to react,” tells Kerri.

She suggests women protect themselves by sharing their phone number with only men they trust, and believes that artificial intelligence such as this can help protect you within the dating apps themselves.

“Some dating sites blur all photos. You have to click on them and I always hold my breath,” she says. “I would definitely use this on a dating app.”

While the dating game is definitely fraught with many misfires and mishaps, alleviating the unbidden genital image is not the only technology Sackville wishes was in existence.

“I’m not scared of dick pics. I find them amusing. I’d much rather a filter that blocked arseholes,” she said.

News.com.au has contacted Tinder to ask if they are looking to deploy similar technology. At time of publication they’re yet to comment.

A spokesperson for Bumble told news.com.au that the company has “a no dick pic policy with zero tolerance for dick pictures sent through the platform. We have a robust moderation team who manage this to ensure our users aren’t subjected to imagery like this during their Bumble experience. Any user sending imagery like this will, and have been, removed from our community. We have also banned mirror selfies and photographs of users in their underwear.”