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A guide to sexting best practices for you and your favorite taker-of-nudes.
If you've ever sent or received a sext, you're not alone. In a 2013 study, about 27% of all smartphone users said they receive sexts on a regular basis, and 12% admitted to sending nudes (though the people polled may have been being coy). That number may even be higher now, as the study came out just as Snapchat, then an ephemeral multimedia messaging platform built around disappearing photos and video, was taking off.
This is a judgment-free zone. If you want to send a nude (and have a willing participant), then send a nude. There’s nothing wrong with nudity! Human bodies are beautiful! But it's also totally normal to want to maintain control of the way your nudes are seen and distributed.
The only way to *truly* control your nude distribution is to do it yourself. Just follow these simple steps: take a pic of your goods, download the pic to an encrypted hard drive, drop in a password-protected folder, confiscate your partner’s phone, show them the image, close the file, return their phone, and proceed.
But that’s deeply unsexy!! And also not how sexting works.
If you decide to send nudes, you assume the risk of those nudes ending up in a public forum, and should prepare yourself for the worst case scenario – but you can significantly lower that risk by following this guide to best practices for ~sensual~ electronic communication. These tips don’t offer a complete guarantee that your nudes won’t be leaked, but they are a good first line of Defense Against the Dark Interwebs.
One note: if you’re under 18, never, ever, under any circumstances, share a photo of yourself naked. You can be prosecuted as a sex offender, even for sending a picture of yourself consensually.
Reclining Nude by Julien Vallou de Villeneuve / The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Here is the most important sexting advice of all: only send NSFW content to people you trust. Does the recipient seem like someone who would publish your nudes as revenge or use them as blackmail? Do they seem like they take basic security precautions with their devices (see: tip #2)? Are they generally …trustworthy?
You can use apps that employ the most secure end-to-end encryption available, but it won’t matter if the person on the other end takes a screenshot, and “accidentally” posts it to Twitter. So make sure that the person you’re sending your Anthony Weiner to is someone who understands the value of the safekeeping of your selfie.
Because, duh! If their (or your) phone is ever stolen and left unlocked, your nudes might end up in the wrong hands.
You won’t always know when someone screenshots your sext. Yes, some services will notify you, but there are many ways to get around this.
Snapchat will display a particular icon (an arrow with spikes) when a screenshot of your Snap has been taken. Instagram will also notify you if the recipient of a “disappearing” Instagram direct message takes a screenshot.
However, neither of these notification features prevent someone from taking the screenshot in the first place, and they could easily take advantage of the app’s biggest loophole: taking a photo of the screen with another device.
Nicole Nguyen / BuzzFeed News
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