Articles and/or observations of individuals using pictures of
themselves, either male or female, as a form or way of flirting.

Hello and thank you for your question.

The problem that your friend has is that these days, in the US and
elsewhere, what used to be considered fun or flirting is more often
now considered a type of workplace harassment.

And conduct that is funny or flirty on the movie screen, etc.
http://mohabbat.com/images/film_strip.jpg
 may not come across that way in real life.

"Examples of prohibited conduct include, but are not limited to, ...
display of sexually explicit pictures, greeting cards, articles,
books, magazines, photos, or cartoons."
http://hr.umc.edu/handbook/harassment.html

"display of sexually offensive photographs drawings or graffiti"
http://info.med.yale.edu/owm/harassment_guide.html

"nude or seminude posters, photos, cartoons"
http://www.monroecc.edu/depts/stuserv/pdf/harassment.pdf

Misconception: "Peers just just like to flirt and tease each other--no
harm is meant by it."
Reality: "Flirting is fine if it is wanted and mutual. Harassment by
peers is different, and comes in many forms, such as teasing,
unnuendo, inappropriate sexual comments, ... obscene jokes or e-mail
messages, sending pornographic photos, sexist graffiti, etc."
http://www.sexualassault.virginia.edu/harassment_rethinking.htm

The conduct that you describe does not sound pornographic to me, so I
would place it in the gray area between flirting and harassment.
"Are employees allowed to flirt on the job anymore? Can they tell
off-color jokes? What happens when someone gets offended? Who decides
what is appropriate, and what is not? Should employees be required to
tolerate some minimal level of offensive sexual behavior within the
workplace?
.... The line is drawn between acceptable sexual conduct and sexual
harassment where the conduct becomes unwelcome. However, as the courts
continue to grapple with the definition of unwelcome sexual conduct,
their decisions have not followed a predictable pattern."
http://www3.uakron.edu/lawrev/robert1.html

The legal standard for flirting as harassment is that to be
harassment, it must be persistent and unwelcome.
http://international.udel.edu/studyabroad/faculty/know_before_you_go2.html

So in the case that you describe, I think the answer is whether the
episode with the camera was an isolated event.  If there was no other
unwelcome talk, pictures, etc. then your friend probably will not be
sued or lose his job for the behavior.  But he should consider it a
lesson and learn from it - - times have changed!

Search terms used:
flirt work harassment photos site:.edu
flirt work harassment photos site:.gov

Thank you again for bringing us your question.  If you find any of the
above unclear, please request clarification.  I would appreciate it if
you would hold off on rating my answer until I have a chance to
respond.

Sincerely,
Google Answers Researcher
Richard-ga

A proper answer considering recent court cases.

There is a scene in the movie The Truth About Cats and Dogs where the
two women are competing for the photographer by posing while he
photographs them. It's not at all pornographic (nobody takes off any
clothes), but is flirtatious. He is not aware that there is a
competition going on.

- Hammer

The Movie swimfan, where the female lead sends nude pictures of
herself to the guy she's trying to get.

The movie Gia, where Angelina Jolie tries to court her makeup artist
by posing nude for her photographer

To make a short story long.....  It seems that a male took some
pictures of himself in different stages of dressing.  He had a digital
camera and he showed the pictures, still in the camera, to three
female coworkers.  They apparently were not all together when he did
this.  They are all friends and the three ladies received apologies
from the guy with the camera.  The ladies told their friend that he
should seek some professional councelling because they believe that a
normal male would not do that.  He says it is a type of flirting and
that he has never "come on" to anyone.  He also said he never would
show an image to someone who is not a close friend.  So he asks me to
find out it there is anything out on the web that might agree with
him. scuba1

I have a story that was told at the recent funeral of my grandfather
in law.  On his first date with his future wife, he had her pose for a
few photo portraits.  This was many years ago and photo development
took a while.  So, he decided to take the portraits on the first date
and this gave him a reason to have her back for a second date so he
could give her the portraits.  They didn't really hit it off on the
first date, but she wanted to see how the photos turned out so they
had a second date.  They were married over 50 years.