The Nation is agog

according to reports


All I can say is, that the Nation is easily gogged.

This relates to a “Cellphone porn devastates family” story yesterday. The technology involved is certainly 2007, but the moral issues and outrage – a maiden’s honour besmirched etc – are pure 1807. Basically, a cellphone vidoe clip is circulating about two local teenagers enaged in sexual activity, which of course is shocking and unheard of.

Many commentators are debating the social impact of universal cellphone-camera ownership, especially in the wake of the Saddam execution debacle. In this case, we have a clip of a girl blowing her boy friend - presumably that’s what it was, seeing he must have have at least one hand free for filming. The technological problem is, that when at one time activity was performed by consenting adults or teenagers in the privacy of their parents’ homes, now this activity appears within 15 minutes for the world’s inspection on YouTube. Embarrassing yes, when the participants are identified as locals.

But the participants are of legal age, and I have to blow the secret to our more sheltered compatriots, that this is the sort of thing teenagers do these days. In other words, a similar operation will have taken place up and down the country hundreds of times on any given day, filmed or not, and dozens of similar video clips may have been posted on YouTube (and dozens of other sites). By this time tomorrow, dozens more clips will have been posted, and the ones from today will be history.

And the kids involved, if in the US, would be nearly old enough to be sent to die in Iraq, but not old enough to indulge in a bit of nooky.

Hardly reason, I think for a family to be ‘devastated’, the girl taken out of school (a ‘courageous action’, according to some cretin), and banished to another country; the distraught parties contemplating suicide etc etc. ‘The police are involved’ – don’t they have other things to do, like finding comet murderers etc?

No, as I said, this is not 1807. Bring her back, put her back in school (hopefully at 17 she is nearly finished by now, though she may have been neglecting her grades with extramural activities): with advice to be a bit more discreet in future, and ensure that cameras are switched off.

As for the boy, he seems to show a fair degree of computer literacy in successfully processing a digital video clip, networking it and uploading it to the internet. In time, he should get a good job in IT and be an asset to the country.