I write fanfiction a lot. Fandoms I've written for include Animorphs, Dragonball Z, Inuyasha, Transformers, Power Rangers, Super Mario Brothers, Godzilla, and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Some of my writing involves smut. I fully admit it, and those fanfics are labeled as mature so those who wish to avoid such material can skip it. There are people who draw smutty fanart and that's fine too. Whatever floats your boat. Fanfiction and fanart don't usually involve the writer or artist unless they choose to insert themselves into it. I can pick and choose which fanfiction archives I point people to if I don't want someone running into my adult-rated material. It would probably take some work to search out ALL of my fanfiction, but I'm sure somebody with decent google-fu could probably do it. If confronted about it, I'd just say, "Yeah, I wrote that, and...?"
Now, on the other side of the coin, there are people who put up videos or photos of themselves doing things they would be embarrassed to admit to face to face. I'm not here to judge what you do in your spare spare time. That's your business...until the embarrassing photo or video gets leaked around. Then it becomes everybody's business, and you're caught in the middle. Once something is on the internet, it can never be completely removed. EVER.
Always think twice about the photos you put on the internet. Even when you upload to private galleries, think twice---if you become a cyberbully target, galleries can and will be hacked and raided. I've seen it happen and it is NOT pretty.
There is one man on the internet who was pretty much raked across the coals by people who tricked him into sharing information about himself no one ever should share with someone they don't know, and now pretty much his entire life is the subject of ridicule on a wiki devoted to him. His full name, address, phone number, sexual videos and embarrassing photos are posted online for the world to see. What makes it more sad is he could have avoided a lot of it by not posting the images and videos he willingly made available to the public. He can't even write about sneezing online without it turning up on the wiki. That wiki is the first thing to come up when someone searches his full name. It's very sad, as his chances of ever having gainful employment are pretty much nil.*
I feel lucky because I could have easily made the same mistakes that guy did, but I was taught from my very early teens to never share my address, phone number or full name on the internet. "Everybody might be a rapist with a gun," as quoted by my parents, is a good deterrent for keeping my info private. I never even posted a photo of myself until I turned 18.
If you think for a single second you shouldn't post something, you probably shouldn't! Listen to your inner voice! I'm not a prude by any stretch. I am, however, concerned about people who deal with employment issues and bullying for the rest of their lives because their racy/embarrassing images or videos are splattered across the internet. All it takes is a dirty text or an email to somebody you don't know as well as you think you do and boom, that photo of you smoking weed or that video of you flashing your boobs can become visible to anybody who wants to click it. The hate people suffer when that kind of material gets out can lead to suicide. Just look at Amanda Todd. She was tricked, too, just like the guy I mentioned above.
Yes, I consider myself paranoid when it comes to the internet. I got nailed by online bullying myself when I did something stupid and it was a really eye-opening experience. Funnily enough it was fanfiction related drama! The information they got about me was superficial, thank God. Some of it was screencaps from a fake rant journal(lots of cussing and drama) and some involved intentionally unflattering photos(no naked stuff!) I took of myself in a failed attempt to make the cyberbullies focus on that instead of my real stuff, but it backfired because THAT is what people see now when they visit that page.** The journal entries make me look like an ungrateful, spoiled brat! It's still embarrassing and the page will never go away, although it does acknowledge that I've stopped causing drama. I was being an idiot at the time it first appeared; I can see now that I fed the cyberbullies by trying to retaliate. Now, I use the page as a reminder to NOT fall back into that behavior.
Always remember: Before you post or text a video or photo, ask yourself if you should. If the answer is no, then don't!
*I am not victim blaming here. He was tricked, but he made a drastic error in judgment by sharing embarrassing photos and videos of himself with complete strangers. I pity him because his naivete was preyed upon, and now that he's older and hopefully wiser he can't undo the damage that was done.
**Over time, I have shown that I'm not that person anymore. The cyberbullying stopped once I owned up to the mistake I made, but others aren't so lucky. In my case I brought it on myself, and I resolved it once I admitted that I was wrong. Ask in a comment if you want to know what happened. I'm not afraid to talk about it, but I will not name or link to any specific websites.
Now, on the other side of the coin, there are people who put up videos or photos of themselves doing things they would be embarrassed to admit to face to face. I'm not here to judge what you do in your spare spare time. That's your business...until the embarrassing photo or video gets leaked around. Then it becomes everybody's business, and you're caught in the middle. Once something is on the internet, it can never be completely removed. EVER.
Always think twice about the photos you put on the internet. Even when you upload to private galleries, think twice---if you become a cyberbully target, galleries can and will be hacked and raided. I've seen it happen and it is NOT pretty.
There is one man on the internet who was pretty much raked across the coals by people who tricked him into sharing information about himself no one ever should share with someone they don't know, and now pretty much his entire life is the subject of ridicule on a wiki devoted to him. His full name, address, phone number, sexual videos and embarrassing photos are posted online for the world to see. What makes it more sad is he could have avoided a lot of it by not posting the images and videos he willingly made available to the public. He can't even write about sneezing online without it turning up on the wiki. That wiki is the first thing to come up when someone searches his full name. It's very sad, as his chances of ever having gainful employment are pretty much nil.*
I feel lucky because I could have easily made the same mistakes that guy did, but I was taught from my very early teens to never share my address, phone number or full name on the internet. "Everybody might be a rapist with a gun," as quoted by my parents, is a good deterrent for keeping my info private. I never even posted a photo of myself until I turned 18.
If you think for a single second you shouldn't post something, you probably shouldn't! Listen to your inner voice! I'm not a prude by any stretch. I am, however, concerned about people who deal with employment issues and bullying for the rest of their lives because their racy/embarrassing images or videos are splattered across the internet. All it takes is a dirty text or an email to somebody you don't know as well as you think you do and boom, that photo of you smoking weed or that video of you flashing your boobs can become visible to anybody who wants to click it. The hate people suffer when that kind of material gets out can lead to suicide. Just look at Amanda Todd. She was tricked, too, just like the guy I mentioned above.
Yes, I consider myself paranoid when it comes to the internet. I got nailed by online bullying myself when I did something stupid and it was a really eye-opening experience. Funnily enough it was fanfiction related drama! The information they got about me was superficial, thank God. Some of it was screencaps from a fake rant journal(lots of cussing and drama) and some involved intentionally unflattering photos(no naked stuff!) I took of myself in a failed attempt to make the cyberbullies focus on that instead of my real stuff, but it backfired because THAT is what people see now when they visit that page.** The journal entries make me look like an ungrateful, spoiled brat! It's still embarrassing and the page will never go away, although it does acknowledge that I've stopped causing drama. I was being an idiot at the time it first appeared; I can see now that I fed the cyberbullies by trying to retaliate. Now, I use the page as a reminder to NOT fall back into that behavior.
Always remember: Before you post or text a video or photo, ask yourself if you should. If the answer is no, then don't!
*I am not victim blaming here. He was tricked, but he made a drastic error in judgment by sharing embarrassing photos and videos of himself with complete strangers. I pity him because his naivete was preyed upon, and now that he's older and hopefully wiser he can't undo the damage that was done.
**Over time, I have shown that I'm not that person anymore. The cyberbullying stopped once I owned up to the mistake I made, but others aren't so lucky. In my case I brought it on myself, and I resolved it once I admitted that I was wrong. Ask in a comment if you want to know what happened. I'm not afraid to talk about it, but I will not name or link to any specific websites.
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