Don't send nudes unless you'd be comfortable seeing them splashed across a bus.
If you've ever heard the above, you'll know that sending nudes can be a risky business. And more often than not, if the nudes get shared without your consent, it's you who must take the fall – rather than, you know, the person who betrayed your trust.
It's illegal to share intimate images without consent in the UK, but at least 40% of ‘nude senders’ have either been threatened with or have had their intimate content shared without their consent, according to a survey by Linq. Indeed, the Revenge Porn Helpline has found a 57% rise in reports of non-consensual sharing every year for the past ten years.
GLAMOUR is currently campaigning for a dedicated Image-Based Abuse Law in partnership with Jodie Campaigns, the End Violence Against Women Coalition, Not Your Porn, and Professor Clare McGlynn. Having convinced two successive governments to change the law on deepfakes, we're making progress. In the meantime, some tech companies are innovating to actually protect their users.
Today (8 March 2025) is the launch of Linq, a private sharing app that promises to end all forms of so-called ‘revenge porn’ and ‘sextortion’ in the UK. The creators behind Linq claim the app allows users to have “complete control over their intimate content, even after it's sent.” How? By allowing users to “grant and revoke access to private photos at any time, while also preventing screenshots, screen recording, and unauthorised viewing.”
This means that if you send an intimate image via Linq, you can (in theory) trust that only the person you've sent it to can see it. While someone can access your image, they can't screenshot it, take a photo of it, or even show it to someone next to them. And if you don't want them to access it anymore? You simply click a button.
The launch coincides with the publication of Linq's Safe Sext Survey, which polled over 1,000 people who have either sent or received intimate images. Lia Johansen Villanueva, communications and policy director at Linq, tells GLAMOUR, “Sending nudes is still considered quite taboo in some circles, but the research shows that it's a normal part of modern relationships.”
Indeed, the survey found that 1 in 2 young people have sent an intimate image of themselves, Most individuals who engage in intimate image sharing do so with people they know, with 75% of respondents saying they exchanged explicit content as part of some form of romantic relationship.
Lia continues, “I also hoped to get a truer sense of how many people had really experienced image-based abuse. The stories we heard from people across the UK suggested that the issue of intimate image abuse was even more widespread than statistics suggested.”
The study found that intimate image abuse affects all genders, with 20% of male respondents and 18% of female respondents describing themselves as victims of this form of abuse. Nearly half of respondents reported being shown intimate images of others without that person's permission, exposing, according to Linq, “a culture of non-consensual sharing that puts everyone in danger.”
“Sending nudes is a mainstream behaviour," says Lia. “But it comes with risks, and although there have been promising developments from regulators prioritising image-based abuse, popular platforms are just not built for sending intimate messages.”
Linq uses the following features to protect users:
End-to-end encryption: Ensures only the sender and recipient can access shared content.
Access control: Users can grant and revoke access to their content at any time.S
Anti-capture technology: While someone has access to a user’s content, they can't screenshot it, take a photo of it, or even show it to someone next to them.
Digital watermarking: Each shared image is uniquely watermarked, enabling traceability and accountability in cases of misuse
Linq users will be required to verify that they're over 18 within 24 hours of making their first connection and before any explicit content can be captured, imported, sent or received.
GLAMOUR is campaigning for the government to introduce an Image-Based Abuse Law in partnership with Jodie Campaigns, the End Violence Against Women Coalition, Not Your Porn, and Professor Clare McGlynn.
Revenge Porn Helpline provides advice, guidance and support to victims of intimate image-based abuse over the age of 18 who live in the UK. You can call them on 0345 6000 459.
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
We've come so far in the fight against image-based abuse, but there's still more to do.
