Countdown legend Rachel Riley has spoken out about the barrage of unsolicited pornography she receives in her Instagram DMs, including 31 videos of a penis that were sent by just one user. The user is masturbating in 26 of them, including one where he ejaculates over a photo of Riley on his iPad. Yikes.

Riley, 36, told the BBC:

It really makes me not want to go into my DMs at all because it’s revolting. It’s astounding to know that strangers are sending porn – it empowers them to know that it’s gone to your inbox.

On Instagram, anyone can privately send you something that should be illegal. If they did it on the street, they’d be arrested.

Months ago, Riley granted the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) access to her social media accounts so they could monitor her DMs for themselves. They logged ‘abuse’ sent by 253 accounts and reported them using the Instagram app or website. They found that 227 remained active at least a month after their reports were filed, which suggests Instagram isn’t really doing enough to tackle this sort of thing.

I guess Riley could just turn off message requests or DMs altogether, but why should she change the way she uses social media just because there’s weirdos out there who get a rush out of the idea that she’s seen their willies? It’s on Meta and Instagram to figure out a way to sort this all out, surely.

The UK government has recently announced it will use its new Online Safety Bill to make cyberflashing a criminal offence, so I guess it looks promising on that front. Still, can’t help but feel these perverts will find a way around it. In fact this story doing the rounds now could result in Riley receiving more unsolicited dick pics than ever. Stay classy, internet.

For the time Rachel Riley was accused of being one of the meanest trolls on social media, click HERE.