James Delahunty
23 Oct 2012 11:06
IWF warns that porn sites want your racy photos so badly they will steal them.
It shouldn't come as any surprise to a reader that posting pictures of videos of you online - that are of a sexual nature - is probably not a very good idea when sober. Apparently though, many people do in fact post such content, even to social networks, and porn sites are only too happy to snap up pictures of you and host them.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) primarily investigates images and videos of child sexual abuse online, but this warning isn't just about the youngest Internet users' actions. The group tracked 12,000 self-generated photos and videos that had been posted online (social networks and so forth), and found that 88 percent of them had been reposted by pornography websites.
What the IWF wants to get into everyone's head is that when you post something online, it may become impossible to force it offline. Many people, especially teenagers, don't seem to realize how quickly you can lose control of content online, it is even impossible for celebrities and royalty with expensive legal resources at their disposal to do it.