[jillybean]

http://www.theatlant...problem/263585/

You can bet that I am discussing Amanda and the above story with my daughter.

[iviehoff]

Many paparazzi shots are made in a kind of cooperative venture, whereby the celeb pretends that the shot was a terrible invasion of their privacy, but in fact they deliberately behaved in a way to make the shot possible, knowing from experience what the photographers would likely be up to. They conspire in this way because they thrive on the publicity, and this is a very cheap way of getting it.

I doubt that the Middleton shot was deliberately facilitated, though I find it hard completely to exclude the possibility. The reason is that the publicity this story has generated has, in my view, been very positive for the Royal family, though I haven't found anyone else daring to say so. The reason is that we have long had a view of the Royal family having rather strange private lives - separate bedrooms, etc. In the generation below the present queen, the conflict between doing the old aristocractic thing and modern reality produced frequent visible relationship break-ups. But now put into the public domain we have, apparently, evidence of the next generation behaving not in the old way, but in just the way that many of their generation behave. Suddenly the royals look a lot less weird. Being visibly different and separate was the old and successful tactic for the royals in the queen's generation, but one that failed to work very well for the younger generations. So, scream as they might about this appalling invasion of privacy, in the long run I think they will welcome the effect of it.

On your original point, the shots of the duke and duchess walking among the bare-breasted Solomon Islanders was a perfect illustration of the hypocrisy that exists, and many journalists were not shy in pointing it out. The Naked Rambler has spent 6 years in Scottish prisons, often being re-arrested within moments of stepping out of the prison onto the street. Most recently he got a bit further, but was rearrested for walking past a children's playground. Children in my experience just laugh at adult nakedness, provided it is not threatening, and he was just walking past, not being threatening. They have now made the sensible decision to let him walk out of Scotland into England where the authorities are more willing to ignore his eccentricities. What a waste of national resources, locking someone up for 6 years just because they don't want to wear clothes, in a non-threatening way. If the Scots hadn't made such a fuss about it, he'd probably just have finished his Lands End to John O'Groats walk and vanished into legend.

[kenberg]

I watched the video of Amanda, it was truly tragic. Although I agree with the columnist's views about not making nudity, or semi-nudity, shameful, it seems to me that that is the least important of the issues. surrounding Amanda. How do we guide and protect children? What can we do to help those who are terribly alone, as it appears Amanda was. She tells of the police coming to her dour at 4 am. She does not mention that her parents were at all involved in this nighttime visit from the police. It all sounds quite odd. Surely the police would be interested in finding and arresting the guy who posted semi-nude photos of a teen, or pre-teen, on the internet. But why 4 am? And where were her parents? Later it is made clear the parents are divorced but is she not living with one or the other of them? At any rae, Amanda's story is truly awful and it sounds as if she has many many difficulties going beyond the pictures.


But now about the pictures. A pre-teen unwisely sends semi-nude pictures of herself to someone online and this comes back to haunt her. Yes, kids should be told, and told repeatedly, about such danger. But we were all kids once and probably most of us did some stupid things, so there needs to be another message as well. Your parents are on your side. Sending the pictures was stupid, what the man did was vile. Stupid leads to a need for help, vile is a whole different issue. Your parents will help, and I am pretty sure that in Amanda's case the law would help as well. Perhaps Amanda's parents were mostly absent. She needed someone to go to for help. There should be such a place, and kids should know where it is.

Back again to the matter of respecting privacy. The internet is a very powerful tool for looking into the details of the lives of others. It is hard to fully regulate this without trampling on legitimate inquiry, but I believe much of what is done should be socially unacceptable. Guys like looking at attractive women, and especially if they are minimally clad. This won't change. But most of us would not feel comfortable looking at pictures of a women's shower taken surreptitiously. It's a matter of balance. Modern technology makes it possible to be very invasive, but we don't need to do everything we can do. A very minimal example: Some guy we know mentioned that he found out from the internet that my wife had gotten a ticket for speeding. Big deal. I guess he missed the topless photos from her youth . But maybe he could mind his own business?

[jjbrr]

The Amanda story is sad and she clearly didn't deserve how she was treated, but I think it's a lot more complicated than the media initially let on, and certainly there is more to it than what she claims in her video. Sources seem to suggest that there are a bunch of photos of her floating around, so this wasn't a single incident where she made a mistake that trainwrecked her life. Obviously she had some major problems, further exacerbated, allegedly, by drugs, alcohol, and irresponsible promiscuity.

Anonymous allegedly already found the guy and leaked his info to the public. 30 year old guy in Canada. Steep price to pay to catch a pedophile, but Anonymous claims he had posted to pedophile websites and what not, so it would be good to get this monster behind bars.

[mgoetze]

Good article. Greetings from the land of topless actresses in early afternoon TV commercials.

[ggwhiz]

Reading about about a debate on a national bullying strategy bill and then the following action during question period in our parliament it occurred to me that these bullies are just preparing for a political career.

What an aweful example to set.

[Zelandakh]

One has to question the police investigation. It apparently took a few kids a day or 2 to track down the abuser. The police with many more resources could not manage it in over a year. It would be interesting to know how seriously they really took the matter. The answer is for these matters to be taken very seriously and sent to specialist units on tracking down cyber-crime including mobbing, bullying and paedophile rings. It is not for private groups to become vigilantes and act in precisely the way they are objecting to. For one thing, they might be wrong...