Misuse of Digital Images

Researchers studying online dangers have identified a disturbing new trend: growing numbers of young people are being asked to provide sexual pictures of themselves.1

Before the advent of digital cameras, film had to be developed and printed commercially. Concerns about privacy kept most camera users, including young people, from taking or posing for revealing photos. Digital cameras, especially easy-to-use versions marketed to children, have made it simple to take pictures that no one else sees. Computers have made it easy to transmit them. Photographs can be posted online or sent via email. Some young people are experimenting with this technology while exploring their sexuality by taking explicit or revealing pictures of themselves or others.

In addition to digital photographs, some young people are also using computer-based cameras known as webcams to transmit sexually explicit images of themselves. Webcams, which are inexpensive and often no bigger than a golf ball, are usually placed on top of a computer monitor. When connected to a computer, these cameras send video images that can be viewed instantaneously by another computer user or simultaneously by many users. Adults who seek to exploit children sometimes mail webcams to children they have met on the Internet to facilitate online sexual encounters.

Camera phones can also be misused. Because they are always at hand, they make it easy to take photos on the go. They also make it easy to take inappropriate photos. In some cases the subject may not have given permission for the photo to be taken, or even know they’ve been photographed. And camera photos can be uploaded to a computer just as easily as photos from a standard digital camera. Parents can help their children learn how to use wireless devices more safely.

Young people don’t always think about the long-term repercussions of their actions and may not be able to foresee the potentially embarrassing and dangerous consequences of misusing this technology. Just as parents control their children’s use of the Internet itself, they need to supervise and oversee the use of these photographic tools, including cameraphones and camcorders.

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1. David Finkelhor, Kimberly J. Mitchell, and Janis Wolak. Online Victimization: A Report on the Nation's Youth. Alexandria, Virginia: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 2000.