Sharing intimate photos safely

By White Rabbit Editorial · Published 26 September 2026 · 5 min read

To share intimate photos more safely, share only with someone you’ve verified and who clearly wants them, keep your face and identifying details out of frame, strip location data, and never share under pressure. This guide isn’t here to tell you not to. It’s here so that if you do, it stays a choice you’d make again.

Consent runs both ways

• Ask before you send. An unsolicited explicit image is not a compliment, and in some places sending one is an offence in itself.
• Don’t share under pressure. Being pushed, guilted or rushed into sending images is a red flag — see red flags.
• What you receive isn’t yours to share. Images sent to you are for you alone. Forwarding or showing them to others without consent is abuse, and often a crime.

Verify the person first

Most image-based blackmail starts with images sent to someone who wasn’t who they claimed to be. A short live video call with the person you matched with is the best filter there is. If they won’t do one, don’t send anything — here’s why.

How do I make a photo less identifiable?

1. Leave your face out, or crop it at the neck.
2. Cover or avoid distinctive marks — tattoos, scars, birthmarks, piercings.
3. Watch the background. Bedding, artwork, windows, mirrors and anything with writing on it can identify you or your home.
4. Remove jewellery such as a recognisable ring or watch.
5. Strip metadata. Turn off location in your camera settings, and remove location before sharing where your phone allows.
6. Store them carefully. Consider a hidden or locked album, and check whether your phone automatically backs up photos to a shared cloud or family account.

What about disappearing messages?

View-once and disappearing messages help, but they are not a guarantee. A screenshot, a screen recording or a second phone can capture anything shown on a screen. Treat every image you send as one that could, in the worst case, outlive the conversation — and decide what you’re comfortable with on that basis.

What does the law say?

Laws differ by country and state, but the direction is consistent: sharing someone’s intimate images without their consent — and in many places, threatening to — is a criminal offence, including in England and Wales and in most US states. Using images to demand money is blackmail. If it happens to you, you are the victim of a crime, whatever the context in which you first shared the image.

If your images are shared or threatened

• Don’t pay or negotiate with anyone threatening you — see the sextortion guide.
• Use StopNCII.org. It hashes the image on your device so participating platforms can block it — the image never leaves your phone.
• Report to the platform where it appeared and to the police.
• Get support. The Revenge Porn Helpline (UK) and the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (US) help adults with intimate-image abuse, including getting content removed.

How White Rabbit helps

On White Rabbit, private photos live in a locked vault and unlock one viewer at a time, only when you grant access — and each viewer sees a watermark unique to them, which discourages passing images on. You can lock your photos entirely whenever you like. See safety & discretion →

Frequently asked questions

Sources & further reading

• StopNCII.org — help stopping intimate images being shared — SWGfL (UK charity)
• Revenge Porn Helpline — SWGfL (UK charity)
• Cyber Civil Rights Initiative — Cyber Civil Rights Initiative (US)
• Cyberflashing to become a criminal offence — GOV.UK

How we write and check these pages: editorial standards. This is general information, not legal, medical or therapeutic advice.

Keep reading

• Sextortion: how to prevent it, and what to do if it happens
• Protecting your identity on dating and kink apps
• What to do if something goes wrong