Send Nudes: What 1,058 People Told Us About Sending & Getting Nudes

• Americans send 1.8 million nudes per day or 20 per second.
• 4 in 10 Americans have sent a nude photo, 11% in the last month.
• 23% exchanged nudes with someone they matched on Tinder, more than any other dating app. Most never met the recipient for a real date.
• 7 out of 10 times strangers swap nudes on dating apps, the result is someone possessing a stranger's nude who they'll never meet.
• Nearly 1 in 5 people would buy a nude, paying around $27 on average.
• Men were twice as likely as women to obtain a nude without permission (23% vs. 12%).
• 70% of women and 50% of men believed those who share others' nudes without consent should receive a jail sentence (average of 1.5 years) or a fine of $4,400.
• A majority of women (58%) and nearly 4 in 10 men (38%) thought a new "sext offender" registry would be a good idea.

"Send nudes" started life as an internet gag — a sarcastic line lobbed at anyone who let it slip they were female on a forum. These days, though, the phrase isn't just a punchline anymore. Millions of men and women across the globe genuinely do send nudes, no irony attached.

The relentless growth of messaging and dating apps, blazing-fast wireless data, and always-within-reach high-def front and rear cameras have, for better or worse, made it nearly impossible to resist turning ourselves into digital nude images.

We wanted to go beyond simply confirming how common this is and dig into what requesting and receiving nudes actually means for people. Is this just harmless modern fun, or an ethical minefield with no way to hit undo?

We surveyed 1,058 Americans about how many nudes they'd sent, what they thought a nude was worth in different situations, and what punishment they felt fit the misuse of one.

Americans send 20 nudes every second

In roughly the time it took you to get through this page's opening paragraphs, American adults snapped and sent 1,000 nude photos. We know this because we polled more than 1,000 people ranging from 18 to 73 years old about their nude-photo habits.

The numbers, adjusted to match the age makeup of U.S. adults, showed that 4 in 10 Americans have sent a nude photo to somebody at least once. But this is clearly a young person's activity — 60% of women under 30 and 54% of men under 30 had sent at least one nude. Over a fifth of everyone aged 18 to 29 had sent one within just the past month, versus 11% across the full age range.

We asked those who'd taken a nude to describe the most revealing shot they'd ever sent. Eighty percent of women said it showed their breasts, 37% their genitals, and 59% their face. Fifty-six percent said the image showed their breasts and/or genitals together with their face.

Among men, 75% showed their genitals (the now-notorious "dick pic"), 39% showed their face, and 33% showed both.

Overall, men sent 60% of all nudes in the U.S. (an estimated 32 million photos monthly versus 21 million from women). Men who sent nudes also did so more often — around four times a month for those under 30 and three times a month for those 30 and older, compared with 2.5 times a month for women of any age.

But not every nude lands with a happy, willing recipient.

Women are nearly 4x more likely than men to get an unwanted, unenjoyed nude

Most adults under 30 (72%) said they'd received a nude at some point. But the details matter here. Happily getting a nude you actually requested is nothing like having an unwanted X-rated image dropped on you out of nowhere.

Four in 10 women and 6 in 10 men said they'd received a nude they hadn't asked for but were glad to get anyway, while nearly half of women (47%) said they'd received one they neither wanted nor liked, compared with just over 1 in 10 men (12%).

You don't even have to be texting or sexting with someone through a messaging or dating app to end up on the receiving end of an uninvited nude. Reports have surfaced in the U.K., U.S., and Australia describing "cyber-flashing," where strangers nearby beam nudes to people's phones via AirDrop or Beam file-sharing features. Even declining the file doesn't spare the recipient — thumbnail previews of the images still show up.

Cyber-flashing remains fairly uncommon. Dating apps, on the other hand, have been fueling nude exchanges for close to two decades now. What's changed is how effortless it's become to snap and fire off a crisp, high-resolution image of yourself. Back in 2000, when eharmony launched, the first camera phone shot photos at just 0.35 megapixels. Now, plenty of smartphones pack 40-megapixel cameras sharp enough to capture every pore of whoever's brave — or reckless — enough to pose.

We asked our respondents which dating platforms they'd used and whether any led them to share a nude.

One in five dating app users ends up sending a match a nude

Nowadays there's a dating app tailored to nearly every style of dating, and some carry reputations for drawing specific crowds and behaviors. There are religious and niche options (think Jdate and Christian Mingle), apps for busy professionals (like EliteSingles), long-standing paid platforms (Match, eharmony), apps for people wanting to explore BDSM (FetLife), and a whole batch of free "social dating" apps such as Tinder, Bumble, and Happn. So which one sees the most nude-sharing?

Across every dating platform our respondents had used, 23% said they'd sent or received a nude with someone they'd met online. Looking only at apps with enough respondents to draw conclusions, Tinder topped the list for nude exchanges. Forty percent of Tinder users had sent or received a nude with a match. (Tinder itself doesn't allow direct photo sharing, so this figure reflects people who matched there, then moved the conversation elsewhere before exchanging images.)

POF (PlentyOfFish) came in second, with 27% of its users reporting a nude sent or received with someone met on the platform.

Not everyone who exchanged a nude with a dating-app match did so before ever meeting face-to-face. Among the 37% who said they'd sent a nude to a match before an in-person meeting, that meeting actually happened only 29% of the time. In other words, 7 out of 10 nude exchanges on dating apps before meeting in person leave someone holding a stranger's nude they'll never actually meet.

Dating apps have also spawned another trend: buying and selling nudes for money or favors.

We rate our own nudes as worth roughly three times more than anyone else's

Nudes clearly aren't all valued equally. To understand how people price them, we asked what dollar value they'd assign to naked selfies across different scenarios.

Twelve percent said they'd sell a nude of themselves, at an average asking price of $73.90. Women were over twice as likely as men to say they'd sell (17% versus 7%).

Some set the bar even higher for their own image — 25% wanted at least $170, and 10% wanted $500 or more.

Being willing to sell is only half the equation — is there actually demand?

Eighteen percent said they'd pay for a nude, whether of someone they know or a celebrity of their choosing, with men five times more eager to buy than women (30% versus 6%).

In practice, 9% of men had actually paid for a nude at least once, while not a single woman we surveyed reported having paid for one.

On average, buyers seeking a nude of someone they know personally would pay $25.90, barely below their top average offer for a celebrity ($27.50). That's far less than what the leaked celebrity photos from 2014's "The Fappening" reportedly fetched — those illegally obtained images sold for anywhere from $100 to $350 depending on who was pictured, four to thirteen times above what our respondents said they'd pay on average.

Someone I knew was posing as someone else and later revealed it was him and a friend wanting to see if I would actually send a nude. — 30 year old survey participant

It seems we value our own nudes at roughly double what we'd pay for someone else's, celebrities included ($73.90 versus $26 to $28). Asked how they'd respond to blackmail threatening to leak a nude showing their face, 1 in 5 said they'd pay an average of $225.60 to make the problem disappear.

Talking to dating app users made clear that buying and selling nudes flows mostly one direction, from men to women. Thirteen percent of women said a man on a dating app had asked to buy their nudes, and 6% of men had tried to sell theirs to women. Yet only 3% of men had been asked by a woman to sell, while 24% had been offered a woman's nude for the right price.

Part of why 8 in 10 people wouldn't pay for a nude is that payment isn't always required — there are ways to obtain them without consent, and for free.

1 in 10 people have screenshotted a nude meant to be temporary

Getting hold of someone's nude without permission 25 years ago would probably have meant physically breaking into their home and digging through their things. Technology has made it possible to add to a private collection without ever leaving the couch.

Men were nearly twice as likely as women to obtain a nude without consent (23% versus 12%). The go-to method for both genders was screenshotting something meant to vanish — a Snapchat image, for instance.

Coverage of sneaky Snapchat screenshots goes back to 2013. By now, most Snapchat users know full well that nothing sent there is truly temporary. Yet plenty of guides still circulate on how to screenshot Snapchat "without them knowing."

Men were five times more likely than women to get a nude passed along by a friend, though roughly equal shares of men and women admitted to secretly photographing someone in person or screenshotting a video call.

If you share with others, lovers can and do become enemies pretty quickly … Someone taking a nude of you without your knowledge or permission is another thing. That's sexual assault in my book. — 33 year old male participant

We've established that upward of 50 million nudes change hands across the U.S. every month, plenty with consent and plenty without it. So what becomes of the ones swapped between romantic partners once the relationship ends?

Half of people hang onto an ex's nude after the breakup

Seventy-three percent of men and 65% of women told us they'd had a former partner's nude in their possession post-breakup. Among them, over 6 in 10 men held onto it, versus nearly 4 in 10 women.

I wonder sometimes what he did with them, or what he has told people about me. As the female in this situation, I feel like my reputation is way more at stake than his, but that he holds total power over me and I absolutely hate it, and hate that I have allowed myself to get messed up in this situation. — 26 year old female participant

Whether it's ethical to keep an ex's nudes isn't a clear-cut question. Forty-six percent of women said it counts as cheating if a man keeps an ex's nude once he's in a new relationship, versus 27% of men who felt the same about the reverse scenario.

Even so, 35% of men and 17% of women admitted to keeping an ex's nudes without ever getting explicit permission from the person pictured. Comparing that to how many people say they know their ex kept their photos reveals a curious gap. Thirty-five percent of men kept an ex's nudes without consent, yet only 23% of women said they were aware their ex had done the same to them. That leaves at least 12% of women and 9% of men unaware their nudes are still floating around in an ex's life.

Many, many years ago, I did let my husband take nude photos of me with an Instamatic camera – we divorced, he's since died, and I have no idea what happened to the photos. — 64 year old female participant

We asked how people would react to learning an ex-partner had pleasured themselves to a kept nude of them. One in 4 women said it would disgust them, versus just 1 in 20 men. Women were nearly five times as likely to report feeling regretful (19% versus 4%) and nearly three times less likely to say it would turn them on (11% versus 31%). Still, 36% of women said they'd feel flattered, and 54% of men said the same.

With countless fresh nudes stashed across hard drives, phones, and cloud storage, the odds that consent gets blurred or outright ignored have never been higher.

So what does the public believe should happen to someone who shares a nude without permission?

A quarter of people think sharing a nude without consent warrants five years behind bars

Even though our data suggests plenty of us are pretty relaxed about sending and receiving nudes, that goodwill evaporates when it comes to people who abuse our most private images.

Seventy percent of women and 50% of men said jail time was warranted, with the average recommended sentence at 1.5 years or a $4,400 fine — roughly on par with a class A misdemeanor (think burglary, assault, or DUI).

Overall, 89% of women and 79% of men favored fines for offenders, with women suggesting $5,700 on average versus $3,300 from men. Some believed the punishment should be even harsher, with 25% recommending a five-year sentence plus a $10,000 fine — comparable to a class D felony (voluntary manslaughter or stalking, for example).

For comparison, the hacker allegedly behind "The Fappening" — the mass leak of private celebrity photos — got an eight-month sentence and no fine at all. Other cases carried steeper consequences: a Houston woman won $500,000 in damages in civil court after her ex maliciously posted her nudes across multiple sites.

Forty-five states plus D.C. now have revenge-porn statutes on the books, a sign the legal system is scrambling to keep pace with technology.

[They] put up a nude photograph in the photo lab at our college. — 45 year old woman

[They] sent it to my family. — 19 year old woman

[They] threatened to post it online. — 23 year old woman

6 in 10 women support creating a new "sext offender" registry

While most states are still refining laws around the "intentional distribution of nonconsensual porn," it currently falls to a judge's discretion whether an offender lands on a sex offender registry — the database law enforcement and the public use to track people convicted of sexual offenses.

Forty percent of women and 21% of men said people who share others' nudes without consent belong on a public sex offender registry, alongside pedophiles and other high-risk offenders.

A majority of women (58%) and nearly 4 in 10 men (38%) supported building a separate "sext offender" registry, one that would flag anyone who's shared nudes without consent, warning others they may not be trustworthy.

Wrapping Up

We're living in a strange era saturated with nudity. Facebook has floated the idea of a giant nude-photo database to flag unauthorized sharing (in exchange for us simply handing over our own naked pictures first), and Amazon's Jeff Bezos reportedly faced threats to release his private photos unless he complied with a blackmailer's demands.

If Facebook and the world's richest man both struggle to contain the fallout of nude photos, what hope does everyone else have?

Anyone can choose to take a nude, and the majority of people we surveyed (55%) said there's currently someone in their life they'd consider sending one to. But once it's out there, it's beyond your control.

It takes time to really get to know someone, and even if you think you know them well, years later, they still might do something shady with the private pictures you have sent them. — 27 year old female participant

Twenty-six percent of people keep an ex's nudes, leaving plenty of us stuck in a kind of nude limbo. Maybe those photos will resurface someday to haunt us, or maybe — as 14% of women and 28% of men admitted — we'll feel a quiet pride knowing they might still bring someone sexual satisfaction.

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Fair use statement

Feel free to share our findings on Americans' attitudes toward nudes for any non-commercial purpose. Just link back to this page so we get proper credit.

Methodology

In May 2019, we surveyed 1,058 Americans between 18 and 73 about their nude-sending history, their attitudes on the subject, and how they felt offenders who misuse nudes should be punished. Our sample was evenly split between men and women.

Respondents were recruited through an independent academic research platform. To minimize bias, participants weren't told the survey came from Lovecuri.com, nor were they given full details on the topic beforehand — the survey was framed as being about "how we send and receive photos in the modern world" to avoid self-selection. Results carry a maximum sampling error of 3%.

Where applicable, we weighted responses to reflect the U.S. adult population's age distribution. Because estimates about nude-sharing on specific dating platforms rely on smaller respondent counts, we present those figures with 95% confidence intervals to reflect the added uncertainty.

October 26, 2020