So I decide to check my Facebook account today when I got home from school. Scrolling down the newsfeed I see someone “liked” a picture from this album which is difficult to explain but it seems to be a province-wide Facebook competition. This competition requires people to tag pictures from extremely beautiful girls so that they can be rated. Well I have many problems with this. First being, who are we to judge anyone on their appearance? I mean are we Tyra Banks, who is looking for America’s next top model? I don’t think so. Perhaps the girls in this album do want to be rated and checked out by other people, but that still doesn’t make it right. Well that’s one matter. Another, more noticeable matter that came into view, was the fact that some of the girls in this album don’t seem to be dressed. It is as if they lost their clothes right before they took the picture. Personally I don’t want to see these pictures on my newsfeed, I come on the site to talk to friends, not look at girls showing their bodies to the entire world. I would like to emphasize that this is a social networking sites in which unless accounts are secured properly things can travel anywhere. People need to be careful because any post, picture, link, or comment can go from people in India to people in Canada within minutes. Maybe these girls want to be half naked all over the internet, but as a normal person casually checking their Facebook account, I definitely would not like to see half naked young women on my newsfeed, and especially when they are being “liked” by people I consider my friends. If people stop giving unnecessary attention to these things, it will eventually die down and hopefully stop. We do not need such “competitions” on a public site in which people are judged upon how seductively they portray themselves.

I don’t know the reason for why people need to post such pictures on the internet. I mean, I have heard enough lectures, and theories on why people do such things, for example, they are not happy with their bodies, and by posting pictures to the public they get the appreciation that they want to hear. But really, people aren’t appreciating them rather they are exploiting them. There is a huge difference. People need to stop demanding such pictures from teenage girls who are going through so many changes in their lives that they manage to convince themselves that taking such pictures is the right thing to do. They think they are getting praise but really I think people post just because they are so shocked that someone could actually post a picture like that of themselves.

If you have a boyfriend or girlfriend and you want to send them private pictures go ahead and do so, but keep them to your phones or private emails, as a reminder try to be extremely careful with where your picture are going. I understand sometimes these pictures get leaked on to the internet by mistake and we can’t blame the person who the picture is of, but we should realize it was due to their carelessness that the unwanted images are now open for the public to see. Once on the internet it cannot be removed. If one is going to send pictures to a significant other, they should be completely sure that those pictures will not be put on the internet.

Our society needs to stop showing appreciation for teenage girls who expose themselves to the world not realizing what they are getting themselves into. It isn’t their fault, but they aren’t always completely innocent either. We have to stop demanding those pictures, videos, and comments because people will eventually see it is not an option.

So to summarize, please remind yourself and others that when they are taking a picture to put on the internet, they should wear covering clothes. No one is going to judge for loving themselves and trust me when I say it will make them a 100% more beautiful and handsome. No one can take your beauty away from you, and respecting yourself will increase your beauty. Be careful of your content on the internet and how secured everything is. We control how other see us, but we have to start seeing ourselves the way we want to be seen.