If it's not you, you can't share them. Preventing the non-consensual distribution of intim

The Focus on the Recipient: Breaking the Chain of Dissemination

Most sexting prevention campaigns mistakenly focus on the victim: "Don't take pictures", "Don't send them".

However, the real problem is not the creation of the image, but its non-consensual dissemination.

The campaign "If it's not you, you can't share them" shifts the focus from the creator to the receiver.

The message is clear: the moment you receive an intimate image of another person, you have no rights over it.

The protagonist of the photo is the sole owner of his or her image and the only one who can decide who sees it. This perspective puts the responsibility on the viewers and receivers.

Sharing that image, even if it is "only to a friend" or "in a private group", makes you an accomplice to a crime and a direct aggressor.

Effective prevention is based on teaching minors that the correct response to receiving such material is to delete it immediately and, if possible, to notify the person concerned or an adult.

Legal Consequences of Forwarding (Aiding and Abetting)

It is essential that minors understand the serious legal consequences of forwarding intimate content of third parties.

In many legislations, the non-consensual dissemination of images or videos of a sexual or intimate nature is a crime against privacy and self-image (classified as "discovery and disclosure of secrets").

Crucially, the law punishes not only the person who initiates the dissemination (for example, the ex-partner), but the whole chain that, knowing its illicit origin, forwards it.

A minor who receives the photo and passes it on to his or her WhatsApp group is committing the same crime as the one who originally disseminated it. The excuse "I only received it and passed it on" does not exempt from criminal liability.

Ignorance of the law does not exempt from compliance, and consequences can include heavy fines, probation measures, and even a criminal record.

The Impact on the Victim: The Continued Revictimization

The phrase "If it's not you, you can't share them" also appeals to empathy. Each time the image is forwarded, the victim is re-victimized.

For the sharer, it is a morbid one-second "click"; for the victim, it is a public humiliation that is reactivated over and over again, preventing the wound from healing.

The victim loses control of his or her life, suffers severe anxiety, depression and may become suicidal.

The image sharer is actively participating in the destruction of a partner's mental health.

Understanding that this "simple forwarding" is an act of direct violence is key to prevention.

The goal is to change the culture of the group: to move from morbidity and complicity to social disapproval of the disseminator.

Summary

This campaign shifts the focus of prevention: instead of blaming the victim for creating the photo, it holds the recipient responsible. If the image is not yours, you have no right to share it.

Anyone who forwards an intimate photo of a third party is committing a crime against privacy. The law punishes the entire chain of dissemination, not just the original leaker.

Each forwarding is an act of violence that re-victimizes the affected person, causing severe psychological damage. Prevention seeks to make the group socially disapprove of the person who shares the material.