Editorial – the internet is going to be around forever, so will your nudes

You would be hard pressed to find someone who does not have some sort of presence on the internet. Whether it is a Facebook, texting, Twitter, or Instagram a good majority of the population puts some kind of their information online. While some may believe that the things they post may be safe.

Truth be told almost anything goes once it’s on the internet. A bill was recently passed in California a couple of days ago that made the posting of “revenge porn” a misdemeanor that is punishable by a $10000 dollar fine and a sentence up to six months in prison.

Revenge porn is usually comprised of naked photos or videos that are put up on public websites without the consent of one of the figures. This is usually done by and ex looking for revenge.

There is one big problem with the Revenge porn bill that was just passed by Governor Jerry Brown. The law only applies to photos or video that the person who is being accused of the crime takes. It does not count toward self-taken content. So in retrospect any person, who takes a lewd photo of themselves, then sends the respective photo to a second party. And that second party decides to upload that picture to a revenge porn website.

The second party will get off with no repercussions towards them in any way, because they did not take the photo themselves. Anthony Wiener’s story should be the cautionary tale told when they talk about the horrors of having your career marred by carelessness on the internet. The ex-congress man sent lewd pictures to women for years through text and more. He was caught when he sent a picture of his erection to a young woman through Twitter. He had tried to deny the allegations initially, but the photos he had posted were undeniable proof. This and a string of other mistakes lead to his eventual resigning from congress.

For those who think the popular app Snapchat completely deletes your picture after it’s deleted it does not. For a fact the Android version of Snapchat saves the pictures in a folder on the phones memory card.

The aim of this is not to scare people into never posting online; it is to try to bring awareness to people. We need to be aware of what we post online or send to friends through texting. If you are thinking of sending pictures of your junk to someone, and you are not paid professionally you should seriously reconsider hitting the send button. If a potential employer ever catches wind of any provocative or lewd pictures posted by you, it could potentially sway their decision when deciding on whether to hire you or not.

Update: this article has been updated and replaced with a corrected version of the article. 11:13 P.M. 10/11/13