MySpace and the perils of having a camera and being a moron

So there's this girl. Fourteen. From New Jersey. She's got a boyfriend, a camera, and access to the Internet.

You can see where this is heading.

When a 14-year-old Clifton teenager posted nude photos of herself on her MySpace page, she was trying to get her boyfriend's attention.

Instead, she got the law's attention.

Passaic County prosecutors arrested the teenager and charged her with possessing and distributing child pornography after she posted 30 explicit photos of herself on her page. Though it is unlikely, she could face prison time and have to register as a sex offender under Megan's Law if convicted.

Source: New Jersey Star-Ledger.


Leaving aside the issue that she took and distributed the pictures herself, making it hard to see how they're "exploitative" according to the spirit of the laws in question, the real issue here is:

KIDS THESE DAYS HAVE NO CONCEPT OF THE FOLLOWING:

• Privacy
  
• This Isn't A Good Idea
  
• The consequences of their actions

It's 2009; a 14-year-old was born in 1995. Thus, they have no recollection of a time before the World Wide Web. The reality television wave crested in the early part of the decade. Whereas I was 7 years old and watching The Simpsons, today's teens have grown up watching Survivor, Big Brother and the Flavor of Love.

They don't understand, therefore, that maybe having cameras documenting their every move is kind of creepy. And activities normally reserved as "private" (for example, the transfer of n00dz) are apparantly now group activities, because they can't imagine it being any other way.

The lack of foresight on this girl's part Re: Posting pictures of her boobs on MySpace (where everybody can see them) or Re: Sending pictures of her boobs to a 14-year-old boy (who will then turn around and send them to all his friends and so on and so forth) or Re: Once something's on the Internet, it's there for good and never coming off, marks her as being kind of dumb.

But a sexual offender? Nah. On the other hand, we live in a society where overzealous prosecuters slap the label of "sexual predator" on someone taking a leak in an alley, so there ya go.

On the other hand, it doesn't even have to be sexually explicit to land you in hot water.

Check out this guy:

A recent tweet by one would-be Cisco employee proves that when it comes to placing a permanent black mark on your resume via the Internet, Twitter is now the tool of choice. To illustrate, here’s the tweet the now Web-infamous "theconnor" shared with the world:

"Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”

It wasn’t long before Tim Levad, a "channel partner advocate" for Cisco Alert, shared this open response:

"Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web."

Source: MSNBC



The lesson here?

Think before you post. Your boss also has the internet. So do the cops.

If you SIMPLY MUST send naked pictures of yourself to someone, for God's sake, don't put them on MySpace. And don't send them to people who are going to immediately forward them all over the place.

(Note: People are going to immediately forward them. Get over it or don't do it.)

And lastly: If you're comfortable with running your mouth and/or losing your privacy, by all means, go ahead and put yourself out there. Just recognize that there are a number of people who are interested in it. Some of them just want to see you humiliate yourself (/b/), but others can prosecute you (the cops) or make it so you don't have a job (your boss).