Instantly sharing photos is one of the best things about online technology. Being able to see what your friends and family are up to – when it’s happening, wherever they are in the world – is amazing.
It’s as easy as shoot and send. One click and it’s out there.
For love birds, it is becoming a common practice for one to be tempted to send private photos.
A lady may ask; Is it okay to take sexy pics for my husband? After all, he’s allowed to see you naked, so there’s nothing actually wrong with it, right? That would be a good gift, wouldn’t it? Especially if he were going away for a time (like for a distant deployment or travel)?
It might seem like a laugh at the time, or a good way to get someone’s attention. You might even look really great in the shot, but sending a private photo can become very unfunny very quickly.
That’s why you should think twice before you send private photos – whether it’s you pulling a crazy stunt or posing with your gear off – because it’s only one click before it’s public.
I know there is a lot of pressure that comes upon women. You like this guy; he is asking for these sensitive photos or else dump you. Once you send a digital image it’s out of your control.
Child of God, any image of you stimulating a compulsive interest for sex or anything related is porn. When you create porn, you end up objectifying yourself and pushing your partner back into this fantasy mode, not into relationship mode.
You’re not ever making love; you’re just using each other (or he’s using you). That’s not good.
We all know this; we see it all the time with celebrities. But it’s true for “real life,” as well. Photos that you intend to stay private often don’t. Kids may come across them (and who wants their kids seeing this?). If they’re on a phone, someone else may see it.
Men are visual, and we like to be thought of as “the beauty,” as the Eldredge’s say in their books. I think appreciating a woman’s beauty, and seeing her revealed, is something that is innate in us, and isn’t necessarily bad.
Having it forwarded to your friends would be bad enough, but if it ends up on a public site it could haunt you for a very long time. Let alone newspapers that will not be seen tomorrow, we now have digital press. Once something is published on a public site, for ages one can always refer to it unless deleted – which comes with a cost for many.
But how many shares will have come through before you come to negotiate with who so ever took it in their own hands to bring you down?
The good news is that you control your private images while they’re still private. That first click is your decision.
Before you hit send – to a phone or a site – take another look at the photo and ask if you’d be happy if your parents, mentor, children or teacher saw it. If the answer is no, delete the photo
When you store data and images on iCloud, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox and other cloud services, you are storing them on an internet-connected servers that belong to those companies and are beyond your personal control.
Sean Gallagher, IT editor for the technology website Ars Technica, says cloud services are “leaky by their nature; things that are supposed to be private get stored alongside things that are shared.” He noted that anything from user error to previously unknown software vulnerabilities can expose those. Someone getting ahold of your password can do that, too.
“Even ‘ephemeral’ messaging applications like SnapChat, Glimpse, Wickr and the like don’t block people taking screen captures of the image,” noted Gallagher of Ars Technica, “and if image recipients are using an iPhone, those might automatically get synced to their cloud.”
Point in all this is, don’t take naked photos of yourself.…or any photos, for that matter, that you don’t want the whole world to see. Even if you don’t upload or send them anywhere, you could lose the phone you used to take them or store them.
Those would be my concerns. Heed the red flags, and really think it through first.
Kyeyune Micheal – Contributing writer, UG Christian News
