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Case studies from different European countries

“You have nothing to hide!”
Sexting / Austria

Together with her girlfriend Julia Yvonne takes great sports shots near the indoor swimming pool, she sends her photo to a boy, but they do not only end up on his mobile phone. Someone has also put them on the internet. Good thing there is her big brother ...

“Hello Julia, did you see the picture that Stefan sent to me, isn’t he sweet?” Yvonne was excited, she had always liked Stefan since elementary school she had admired him. He was tall, sporty, had funny glasses on his nose and was always up for fun.

Julia was curious and wanted to see the photo. She noticed that Yvonne had a new phone. Yvonne had got the latest smartphone from her parents for her birthday. Yvonne showed her the photo of Stefan.

“I didn’t know that he was playing basketball, in the photo he really looks cool, just the way he’s standing there and throws a ball into the basket,” Julia replied, who was also a bit envious, since no boy had ever sent her a picture.

“He asked me if I wanted to send him a photo of me and now I don’t know which one I should send to him, what do you think, Julia?”

“You must definitely send a photo where you look cool and athletic! Do you have some photos of yourself on your mobile?” Julia replied.

"No, I just got the mobile phone and I have no photos of myself on the phone. I also don’t know whether I should send him one at all."

"What could happen if you send him a photo anyway?"

"Yes, you are right, but I don’t think I have a really cool photo, on every picture I am either with my brother, my sister or with my friends and that is not really cool. I always look so goody-goody on the photos - maybe you could come to my house today and help me choose a photo, Julia?”

“No, I don’t have time, but we have our swimming lesson right now and I could take a cool photo of you, then he can see how sportive you are!”

“Great, thank you, Julia! But do you really think I should send him one? I'm totally uncertain? On the one hand, I would like to know how I appeal to him and on the other hand it is embarrassing to send him a photo.”

“Do you know what, Yvonne, I'm going to take a few photos of you quickly and then you can still decide if you'll send him a picture or not!”

“Do you really think?”

“Yes, you have this blue bikini; you look really sexy in it. You have nothing to hide with your body. Come on, let's get changed quickly.”

Julia took Yvonne's phone and followed her into the dressing room. They had a lot of fun. Julia took photos of Yvonne and Yvonne took pictures of Julia.

Without hesitation Yvonne sent Stefan a cool, sporty and sexy photo.

The next day at school, Yvonne didn’t feel so well. She had a queasy feeling. The lessons passed very slowly and again and again she looked at her cell phone as she waited for a reaction of Stefan, but Stefan did not answer and Julia also avoided her.

Feeling sad, she went home. She didn’t know any more, why Stefan did not answer. Suddenly, the door opened and her older brother Marcel came into the room rather annoyed.

“Tell me, are you crazy? Why did you put a picture of you on the internet? You've probably never heard that you shouldn’t just put photos onto the net.”

“But I did not put a photo of myself on the internet!”

“Well, how else could Julia show me your photo online? Who else should have put it there and who took such a picture of you anyway? Did you ever understand anything, all the times we spoke about privacy and the right to one´s own picture?”

“Now don’t be such a busybody.”

Yvonne was totally hurt, how could her brother talk to her like that? Besides whatever she did was none of his business. But when Marcel showed her the photo, she was horrified. Who had put this photo on the web? What should she do now? How could she be so naive and allow Julia to take such photos of her?

With a tearful voice, she said to Marcel: “I did not know. What should I do now? Oh, when Mom sees the photos! Please help me!”

Marcel took her into his arms and calmed her down. “We will just see what we can do first. In any case, you should know that you are not alone!”

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