An Arizona State University student is taking matters into her own hands to combat unsolicited explicit photos being sent to her online dating account.
Like many adults, 20-year-old Madi Kohn signed up for the smartphone app Tinder as a way to meet men in her area. However, in her profile she warned, “If you send me [pictures of genitalia] I will send them to your mom.”
Last week one man decided to test his luck and sent graphic photos of himself to her Instagram page after messaging her several times and not getting a response.
"It's just crazy and it blows my mind that people think they can send those kinds of things without repercussions at all," Kohn said. "Especially when you've never even met or talked to the person. I'm not sure what exactly they expect from the other person's reaction."
True to her word, Kohn took to Facebook in an attempt to find the young man’s profile. There were only a few people with the name, however, one lived in a city close to hers.
After combing through his profile Kohn discovered that his family members were listed — including his mother.
Kohn reached out to the woman she believed was his mother and included a picture of the explicit photo sent by her son. She wrote:
Hi, I see that your son is Ryan. I have never talked to him or met him, but he has sent me this picture through instagram (sic) after discovering my profile. Can you please tell him not to send unsolicited pictures to women? I did not ask for it.
The woman — who spoke very little English — responded a day later and explained that her son is a good man and apologized multiple times. She assured Kohn that she would talk to her son about the matter.
Kohn said she did what she did in hopes of empowering other women to stand up for themselves, and hopes others will deal with unsolicited pictures in their own "creative way."
