About 3 in 10 adults have sent a nude. In a 2020 Gallup panel survey of 4,160 Norwegian adults aged 18 to 89, 29.3% had ever sent a nude picture or video of themselves, according to Træen and Kvalem (2022).
Most women don’t welcome the unsolicited kind. 49% of women who received an unsolicited dick pic felt grossed out, and only 8% felt aroused.
In this article, we’ll break down who sends nudes by age and gender, how many women receive dick pics they didn’t ask for, how they react, why men send them, and where cyberflashing is illegal.
Top Dick Pic and Nudes Statistics
- 29.3% of Norwegian adults aged 18 to 89 have sent a nude picture or video of themselves, rising to 55.6% of those aged 18 to 29.
- 38.3% of adults aged 18 to 29 have sent a sext, according to a meta-analysis of 50 studies.
- 53% of US women aged 18 to 29 say someone sent them explicit images they didn’t ask for, compared with 37% of men the same age.
- 90.7% of women who have received a dick pic have received at least one they didn’t ask for.
- 49% of women felt grossed out by an unsolicited dick pic, while 44% of gay and bisexual men felt entertained.
- 44% of British men who sent a dick pic think women find them sexy, but only 14% of women who received one agree.
- Police in England and Wales recorded 3,951 cyberflashing offences between January 2024 and the end of June 2025.
How Many Adults Send Nudes?
Roughly 3 in 10 adults overall, and more among adults under 30. 29.3% of Norwegian adults aged 18 to 89 had ever sent a nude picture or video of themselves in a March 2020 Gallup panel survey, according to Træen and Kvalem (2022).
Younger samples report more. A meta-analysis of 50 studies covering 18,122 adults aged 18 to 29 found that 38.3% had sent a sext and 41.5% had received one, according to Mori et al. (2020). Most of those samples were college students.
US singles report less. In a national survey of 5,805 single adults, 21% had sent sexually explicit texts, according to Garcia et al. (2016), and 16% had sent sexual photos, per an Indiana University summary of the study.
The newest data comes from Czechia. 36% of adults aged 18 to 59 sent a sexual message, including words, photos or videos, in the past 6 months, according to a Masaryk University survey of 3,460 adults fielded in April and May 2025.
Here’s a breakdown of how many adults send nudes or sexts:
| Study | Population | Measure | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thorne et al. (2024) | 2,828 US and Canadian adults 18–30, online sample | Ever sent a consensual sext | 80.9% |
| Mori et al. (2020) | 18,122 adults 18–29, 50 studies | Ever sent a sext | 38.3% |
| Masaryk University (2025) | 3,460 Czech adults 18–59 | Sent a sexual message, past 6 months | 36% |
| Træen & Kvalem (2022) | 4,160 Norwegian adults 18–89 | Ever sent a nude picture or video | 29.3% |
| Garcia et al. (2016) | 5,805 US single adults | Ever sent sexual photos | 16% |
The spread comes from the questions. “Sexts” can be words only, “nudes” are images, and online volunteer samples like the 2,828 young adults in Thorne et al. (2024) skew more educated and less heterosexual than the general population.
Who Sends Nudes? Age and Gender
Age matters far more than gender. 55.6% of Norwegians aged 18 to 29 have sent a nude, compared with 3.3% of those aged 60 and older, about 17 times as many (our calculation from Træen and Kvalem data).
Here’s a breakdown of who has sent a nude by age and gender:
| Group | Ever Sent a Nude |
|---|---|
| Ages 18–29 | 55.6% |
| Ages 30–39 | 44.0% |
| Ages 40–49 | 33.3% |
| Ages 50–59 | 16.8% |
| Ages 60+ | 3.3% |
| Women (all ages) | 30.6% |
| Men (all ages) | 28.2% |
| All adults 18–89 | 29.3% |
Women and men send nudes at similar rates. The 2.4-point gap in Norway wasn’t statistically significant, although US single men were 1.5 times as likely as women to send a sexy text, according to Indiana University.
The bigger gender gap is in who receives them. Men were more than 3 times as likely as women to send their most recent nude to a stranger or online-only contact (19.8% vs 6.1%), per Træen and Kvalem.
How Many Women Get Unsolicited Dick Pics?
About half of young women. 53% of US women aged 18 to 29 said someone had sent them explicit images they didn’t ask for, compared with 37% of men the same age, a 16-point gap, according to Pew Research Center (2017 survey).
The gap is wider among dating-app users. 57% of women aged 18 to 34 who used dating sites or apps had been sent sexually explicit messages or images they didn’t ask for, about twice the rate for men (28%), per Pew (2019 survey). In Pew’s 2022 survey, 56% of women under 50 who had used dating platforms said the same, according to Pew.
Asked about penis photos specifically, 46% of British women aged 18 to 36 had been sent one, and 89% of those got one without asking. That means 41% of all young British women had at some point received an unsolicited dick pic, according to YouGov (fieldwork July–September 2017).
The US numbers are similar. 53% of millennial women had received a dick pic, and YouGov says 78% of these respondents had been sent one they didn’t ask for, according to YouGov (2017).
Here’s a breakdown of how many women receive unsolicited sexual images:
| Survey | Population | Received Unsolicited Sexual Content | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Granada | 392 Spanish women 18–45 (genital images) | 74% | 2025 |
| Pew Research Center | US women 18–34 who use dating apps | 57% | 2019 |
| Pew Research Center | US women under 50 who have used dating apps | 56% | 2022 |
| Pew Research Center | US women 18–29 (online, any explicit images) | 53% | 2017 |
| Bumble (company poll) | Men and women 18–24 in England and Wales, past year | 48% | 2021 |
| Ifop for UfancyMe (dating site) | French women on dating sites (genital photos) | 42% | 2018 |
| YouGov GB | British women 18–36 (dick pics) | 41% | 2017 |
| Masaryk University | Czech women 18–59, past 6 months (messages, photos or videos) | 40% | 2025 |
These surveys use different time frames and definitions, so treat them as a range rather than a trend. Still, the pattern holds: once women have received a dick pic, 90.7% have received at least one they didn’t ask for, in Singles in America data analyzed by Marcotte et al., as reported by PsyPost.
Strangers send many of them. In the 2025 Spanish study, 45.7% of unsolicited genital images came from strangers and 21.9% from men the women knew, such as coworkers or neighbors, according to the University of Granada.
Do Women Like Dick Pics?
Mostly not when they’re unsolicited. 49% of women who received an unsolicited dick pic felt grossed out, 46% felt disrespected and 28% felt violated, according to a breakdown of the Marcotte et al. study by Sex and Psychology.
Only 8% of women felt aroused. Gay and bisexual men reacted very differently: 44% felt entertained and 34% felt aroused, and women were about 3.8 times as likely as these men to feel grossed out (49% vs 13%).
Here’s a breakdown of how people react to unsolicited dick pics:
| Reaction | Women | Gay and Bisexual Men |
|---|---|---|
| Grossed out | 49% | 13% |
| Disrespected | 46% | 14% |
| Violated | 28% | 3% |
| Entertained | 16% | 44% |
| Curious | 11% | 41% |
| Aroused | 8% | 34% |
| Flattered | 7% | 28% |
Respondents could pick several reactions. Source: Sex and Psychology, summarizing Marcotte et al. (2020), Journal of Sex Research
Some women do react positively. 26% of women had at least one positive reaction to an unsolicited dick pic, as reported by PsyPost.
Women’s own words point the same way. 49% of US millennial women described dick pics as “gross,” 48% as “stupid” and 24% as “sad,” according to YouGov (2017).
Even wanted nudes appeal less to women. 21% of US women would like to receive nude photos from a partner, compared with 52% of men, about 2.5 times as many, according to YouGov (2015).
Men also misread the reaction. 44% of British men who had sent a dick pic thought women would call it “sexy,” about 3 times the 14% of women recipients who actually did, according to YouGov.
Here’s how men’s expectations compare with women’s reactions:
| Description | Men Who Sent One Think Women Say | Women Who Received One Say |
|---|---|---|
| Gross | 55% | 58% |
| Stupid | 46% | 54% |
| Funny | 51% | 28% |
| Boring | 50% | 28% |
| Sexy | 44% | 14% |
In a 2018 Bumble survey of women using the app (a company poll), 95% of women who’d received unsolicited nudes from someone they hadn’t met were unhappy about it, as reported by Roll Call.
Why Do Men Send Dick Pics?
Mostly in the hope of getting something back. In a survey of 1,087 heterosexual men, about half had sent unsolicited genital images, and the most common motive was a “transactional mindset,” hoping to receive sexual pictures in return, according to Oswald et al. in the Journal of Sex Research, as reported by PsyPost.
Hoping to turn the recipient on came second, and the reactions senders most wanted were positive ones, such as feeling attractive. A minority had hostile motives.
Here’s a breakdown of why men send unsolicited dick pics:
| Motive or Trait | Finding |
|---|---|
| Hoping to receive images in return | Most common motive |
| Hoping to turn the recipient on | Second most common motive |
| Sending for their own satisfaction | About 18% of senders |
| Feeling of control over the recipient | About 10% agreed |
| “Dislike towards women” makes sending satisfying | Nearly 6% agreed |
| Narcissism and sexism | Higher in senders than non-senders |
The personality findings are correlational. Senders scored higher on narcissism and sexism on average, which doesn’t mean those traits cause the behavior.
Some men are asked. 34% of US millennial men and 30% of British millennial men said a woman had asked them to send one, while 27% and 22% had sent one, according to YouGov US and YouGov GB.
The numbers don’t line up. 41% of young British women had received an unsolicited dick pic, but only about 5% of young British men admitted sending an unsolicited one, an 8-fold gap. That may mean a small share of men send to many women, or that some men under-report.
How Does Sexting Affect Relationships?
Most nudes go to partners. 66.2% of Norwegian adults who had sent a nude sent their most recent one to a committed partner, including 73.6% of women and 59.0% of men, according to Træen and Kvalem.
Sexting is linked to higher sexual satisfaction. In a 2015 online survey of 870 US adults aged 18 to 82, 88% had ever sexted and 82% had sexted in the past year, and more sexting was associated with higher sexual satisfaction, especially among people in relationships, according to Drexel University.
Frequent sexting is a mixed signal. Among 365 US and Canadian adults under 50 in committed relationships, 57% had never sexted, 21% sent words only, 13% sent explicit texts and images weekly and 9% did so daily, in preliminary findings by Drouin, Galovan and McDaniel reported by HealthDay (2018).
Weekly and daily sexters reported higher sexual satisfaction but also more conflict, insecurity and ambivalence about the relationship. Those who never sexted were about as satisfied with their relationships as those who did.
Nudes sent outside the relationship are another matter. 82% of Britons count sending nudes to someone else as cheating, according to YouGov (2026), a higher share than for using dating apps or kissing in the ranking of what Britons count as cheating.
Source: Træen & Kvalem, Drexel University, HealthDay
How Often Are Nudes Shared Without Consent?
Nearly 1 in 4 recipients pass them on. 22.9% of US singles who received sexual images shared them with others, showing them to an average of 3.17 friends, according to Garcia et al. (2016). Yet 73.2% said they were uncomfortable with that kind of sharing.
Across 50 studies of adults aged 18 to 29, 15.0% had forwarded a sext without consent, according to Mori et al. In Czechia, 9% of adults said their own sexual messages had been forwarded without permission in the past 6 months, per Masaryk University (2025).
Nudes are also used for blackmail. 14.5% of 16,693 adults in 10 countries said someone had threatened to share their intimate images, and 4.8% admitted making such threats, according to Henry and Umbach (2024). Men (15.7%) reported it slightly more often than women (13.2%).
In the US, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center logged 52,967 sextortion complaints from people aged 20 or older in 2025, who reported $42.9 million in adjusted losses (our calculation from FBI IC3 age data).
Here’s a breakdown of adult sextortion complaints by age:
| Age | Complaints (2025) | Adjusted Losses |
|---|---|---|
| 20–29 | 22,061 | $7.3 million |
| 30–39 | 11,855 | $8.1 million |
| 40–49 | 7,791 | $6.5 million |
| 50–59 | 5,139 | $6.2 million |
| 60+ | 6,121 | $14.9 million |
| All adults 20+ | 52,967 | $42.9 million |
Younger adults file the most complaints, but people aged 60 and older lost the most, about 34.7% of all adult losses. Sharing someone’s nudes without consent is a form of image-based abuse often called revenge porn. In the US, the federal Take It Down Act now requires platforms to remove reported intimate images within 48 hours.
Is Sending Unsolicited Dick Pics Illegal?
In some places, yes. Sending a photo or film of genitals became a criminal offence in England and Wales in January 2024 and was first recorded by police on 31 January 2024, according to the Office for National Statistics, and offenders face up to 2 years in prison, according to GOV.UK.
Police recorded 3,951 cyberflashing offences from the law’s start to the end of June 2025, led by the Metropolitan Police (268), West Midlands Police (240) and Essex Police (192), according to Home Office figures reported by LBC. Convictions are far rarer, with fewer than 50 in a year, as reported by UCL.
The first conviction came in March 2024, with a total sentence of 66 weeks that included time for breaching an earlier court order, according to Engadget. Scotland has treated cyberflashing as an offence since 2010, under section 6 of the Sexual Offences (Scotland) Act 2009.
Since 8 January 2026, cyberflashing has been a priority offence under the UK’s Online Safety Act. Platforms must take proactive steps to stop users seeing unsolicited nudes or face fines of up to 10% of qualifying worldwide revenue, according to GOV.UK.
In the US, cyberflashing laws are set state by state. Texas made it a crime in 2019, Virginia and California added civil remedies in 2022, and Oregon passed its own law in 2025.
Here’s a breakdown of cyberflashing laws:
| Jurisdiction | Law | Type | Penalty or Damages |
|---|---|---|---|
| England and Wales | Online Safety Act 2023 (in force January 2024) | Criminal | Up to 2 years in prison |
| Texas | HB 2789, Penal Code 21.19 (September 2019) | Criminal (Class C misdemeanor) | Fine of up to $500 |
| Virginia | Code 8.01-46.2 (July 2022) | Civil | Actual damages or $500, whichever is greater |
| California | SB 53, the FLASH Act (January 2023) | Civil | $1,500 to $30,000 in statutory damages |
| Oregon | HB 3766 (2025) | Civil | Up to $10,000 |
California’s top statutory award is 60 times the Texas fine cap, but it applies only when the recipient had expressly forbidden such images, according to the California Assembly analysis.
What Dating and Social Apps Do
Some apps filter nudes before anyone sees them. Bumble launched its Private Detector AI in 2019, claiming 98% accuracy at spotting lewd images, and open-sourced it in 2022, according to TechCrunch. Bumble says just 0.1% of its users send lewd images, a company figure.
Instagram announced Nudity Protection for direct messages in April 2024. It blurs images detected as nudity and lets the recipient choose whether to view them, though adults have to switch it on, according to TechCrunch.
Methodology
We reviewed 193 data points from 40 sources. Prevalence figures come from a national Norwegian panel survey (Træen and Kvalem), a 2025 Czech adult survey (Masaryk University), a meta-analysis of 50 studies of adults aged 18 to 29 (Mori et al.), the Singles in America survey of US singles (Garcia et al., sponsored by Match.com) and Pew Research Center surveys of US adults.
Measures differ. Some studies ask about sexts, which can be words only, and others about nude images; some ask about ever, others about the past 6 months or past year. Thorne et al. and the Drexel University survey used online volunteer samples, and the Drouin, Galovan and McDaniel findings were preliminary conference results.
Reaction and motive figures from Marcotte et al. and Oswald et al. are taken from summaries of their Journal of Sex Research papers by PsyPost and Sex and Psychology. YouGov figures come from online panels. The Bumble and Ifop (for the dating site UfancyMe) figures are commissioned company polls, and Bumble backed the Texas, Virginia and California laws.
UK cyberflashing figures are police-recorded offences, not a measure of how often cyberflashing happens. FBI IC3 figures are complaints, not prevalence. Adult IC3 totals, ratios, gaps and shares are our own calculations.
Key Takeaways
About 3 in 10 adults have sent a nude, rising to 55.6% of Norwegians aged 18 to 29, and 38.3% of adults aged 18 to 29 have sent a sext. Most nudes go to partners, and men and women send them at similar rates.
Unsolicited dick pics are a different story. 53% of young US women have received explicit images they didn’t ask for, 49% of women felt grossed out by an unsolicited dick pic, and only 14% of British women recipients call them sexy, while 44% of male senders assume women do.
FAQ
How many people send nudes?
About 3 in 10 adults. 29.3% of Norwegian adults aged 18 to 89 have ever sent a nude picture or video, and 38.3% of adults aged 18 to 29 have sent a sext in a meta-analysis of 50 studies. Among Norwegians aged 18 to 29, the share is 55.6%.
Do women like dick pics?
Most don't when they're unsolicited. 49% of women felt grossed out by an unsolicited dick pic and 46% felt disrespected, while only 8% felt aroused. 21% of US women say they'd like to receive nudes from a partner, compared with 52% of men.
Why do men send dick pics?
Most hope to receive pictures in return. In a survey of 1,087 heterosexual men, about half had sent unsolicited images, and the top motive was transactional. About 10% said it gave them a feeling of control over the recipient.
Are unsolicited dick pics illegal?
In some places. Cyberflashing has been a crime in England and Wales since January 2024, with up to 2 years in prison. In the US, Texas fines senders up to $500, while Virginia, California and Oregon let recipients sue, with statutory damages of up to $30,000 in California.
Is sexting normal?
It's common among adults. 36% of Czech adults aged 18 to 59 sent a sexual message in the past 6 months, and 88% of adults in a US online survey had sexted at some point. Most nudes go to a committed partner: 66.2% of Norwegian senders sent their latest one to a partner.
