A new report from Chayn has identified the root cause of online abuse against women: the existence of images. Tech companies have responded with characteristic speed and creativity by introducing checkboxes.
The feature works like this: women can now opt-in to having their nude images flagged as nudity. Revolutionary. Before this, apparently, the internet had no way to distinguish between a clothed woman and a nude one, forcing platforms to treat all content with equal confusion. Now they will treat all content with equal confusion, but only if the victim remembers to check a box first.
The report’s actual argument—that consent and context matter infinitely more than whether clothing is present—has been successfully repackaged as a technical problem with a technical solution. A woman’s non-consensual image circulating the internet is now a nudity-detection problem rather than an abuse problem. Her lack of agency becomes a data classification issue.
Tech platforms have spent fifteen years perfecting the art of solving the symptom while ignoring the disease. Harassment? Add a mute button. Exploitation? Add a report button. Non-consensual imagery destroying lives? Add another checkbox. Each feature is announced with genuine pride, as though the company has just invented consent itself rather than outsourcing its responsibility to the person being harmed.
Charyn’s report warns that this approach fails women. Tech companies heard ‘fails women’ and understood it as ‘needs more features.’ The checkbox will launch in Q3. Women will still need to opt-in to basic human dignity.