Posted by
K on Wednesday, July 18, 2007 10:50:00 AM
The internet should never be an option to store anything incriminating - just ask Amy Polumbo, or the boy biting her chest in her facebook photo:
Courtesy of the Today Show
Last week as I did my get-out-of bed routine at the crack of dawn (PS for an aging teenager the crack of dawn is 7am), I had to go through the saga of the Miss New Jersey Facebook-blackmail scandal as I watched the Today Show on NBC.
For those of you non-hipsters out there, Facebook is a website that was started for college students but has now opened up for anyone to be able to use and view. All you need is an email address and a busy life that you want to avoid by wasting away on your computer all day.
Facebook has evolved a lot in terms of security since it's start in 2004 -- you can select who sees what on your Facebook page including personal info, photos, notes you write, etc. However, one can gain access to your address, relationship status, work and school information, and whatever else you decide to put out there.
According to the website itself:
“Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet.
At Facebook, we believe that people should have control over how they share their information and who can see it. People can only see the profiles of confirmed friends and the people in their networks. You can use our privacy settings at any time to control who can see what on Facebook.”
And the unlimited number of photos - yes, both you and your friends can post wonderfully beautiful photos of you at memorable times in your life - prom, graduation, or a drunken night out with friends:
Courtesy of the Today Show
Amy Polumbo (the girl in the center with the pink bra), recently-crowned Miss New Jersey on her way to the Miss America pageant, announced early last week that a blackmailer was sending photos they found on her Facebook page to pageant officials in hopes that her title would be revoked.
At first, no one knew what the pictures looked like or what they contained. But by the end of last week, Polumbo made a second appearance on the Today Show revealing all the pictures and their embarrassing glory:
Courtesy of the Today Show
Courtesy of the Today Show
Courtesy of the Today Show
Polumbo claims all the photos were meant for close friends and family members and no one else had access to them on there.
On the today show, Polumbo excused her actions by saying, "I’m not a robot. I’m a human being." Funny - last time I checked, I’m not a robot. And I’m human. But I do not define my actions as a living being to find time for my boyfriend to chomp on my boob in a public place or let alone have it documented by a photo that is displayed proudly on the internet.
The officials decided late last week to allow Polumbo to keep her title and compete in the Miss America pageant. Not surprising, especially after Miss USA Tara Connor was pardoned by Donald Trump even after her underage drinking binge came out to the public eye.
To me the question isn’t whether she should get in trouble. My question to everyone is, "who would be so incredibly stupid to put incriminating photos on a public website?!"
To be Miss New Jersey or Miss Any-State, a Christian background is not required. So this isn't even a matter who morals. Sure I saw some of those photos and chuckled because they were funny. But a level of common decency and a respectful representation of a state (and potentially the country) are expected if one is seeking a place in beauty pageant glory. If a young woman partakes in these activities that is one thing; but someone who is so careless and dumb to incriminate herself by displaying these photographs proudly should be ashamed and be ready to accept the consequences.
Hopefully the public embarrassment of the entire country seeing her moronic actions will make her think twice before she either (a) does them again or (b) provides evidence for them.
The internet can be dangerous and is definitely in no way a private place. Anyone can see what you post, where you visit, anything. I never put anything up there that I don’t want anyone seeing.
I got a good reminder of that this spring. I was at my church waiting with a teen girl whose mom hadn’t picked her up from youth group yet. She was talking about Myspace (a website similar to Facebook) and just then the 30-year old youth pastor came in and didn’t know about Myspace. The girl took the youth pastor to his computer and showed him her Myspace page, which contained nothing but innocent pictures, songs, sayings, etc.
Then the youth pastor said, "I want to see Kelley’s Myspace page," and my heart almost stopped because I couldn’t remember if I had anything bad on it or not. Since the girl was my "Myspace friend," she just clicked on my name and opened up my page. Luckily, I had nothing to worry about because I had nothing at all bad on there for him to see. But what if I had? I was a youth leader! That would have been bad in too many ways. And I would have no one but myself to blame unfortunately. But I saved myself a lot of embarrassment and trouble by not being stupid in the first place.
So this is a warning to all you beauty queens, friends of friends, or anybody else - you never know who is viewing your things on the internet; parents, coworkers, boyfriends, girlfriends. Take my advice and live by my motto: never do (or in this case, post) anything that you’d be ashamed to tell (or show) your parents.