EVER since cavemen drew pictures of boobs on dusty cave walls, the human race has been transfixed by the female form.
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We are deluged daily by a landslide of sexualised images aimed at titillating, provoking and selling us everything from cars to chocolate milk.
In this soft-porn society, it’s easy to be bludgeoned into submission and lose sight of the sanctity of the human body.
The celebrity nude photo scandal this week illustrates just how rapacious our appetite for seduction has become.
By any measure, the theft of naked images from someone’s computers is unconscionable.
It doesn’t just debase the victims. It shows how morally bereft the perpetrators are.
Within hours of the photos being posted, a number of media outlets, social networking sites and individuals saw no issue with disseminating them.
Who could possibly think such a flagrant and grotesque violation of a person’s rights was acceptable?
The fact these women are celebrities or the fact they chose to pose in intimate photos does not mean they were “asking for it”.
If sharing personal photos of someone is acceptable, then the whole concept of privacy is compromised.
The internet is a remarkable resource, creating a previously unthinkable ocean of information.
It’s sparked a revolution in human connectivity and allowed people to access and disseminate material like never before.
But with that privilege comes responsibility.
Being a citizen of the world wide web is the same as being a citizen of the world.
If you wouldn’t print out nude photos and pass them to strangers in Peel St, then you shouldn’t do it online.
And, if some still don’t get it, then the law must enforce the bonds of decency, just as it does in the real world.
As it stands, defaming or slandering someone online is far safer than doing so in a newspaper or in the street.
Until authorities address that imbalance, the web will continue to be in a moral tangle.