Smile, You’re on Voyeurcam.com!
By Wil Forbis - [Email]
By now, any of you hardcore followers of the Internet have probably heard about the lawsuit recently filed by several college athletes who claim to have been secretly videotaped in the buff and then had the images appear on a host of pornographic web sites. The lawsuit makes the claim that this sort of thing is happening all across the country, and any attractive, well muscled young man stripping down in a gym locker room could find themselves victims of such voyeurism. Obviously, I was highly concerned when I read the allegations. After all, I visit a gym. If people were willing to empty their credit accounts to peruse images of college football heroes, they’d probably trade in their grandmother for images of my finely tuned physique.
Instantly, I began an online search to track down any unauthorized photos of me in my birthday suit. I checked the obvious places, Hotdudes.com, Adonis.net and got more specific to someone of my endowments at the LongJohnson site and hugepenis.com. After a brief perusal of the free galleries, I came up empty. However, wouldn’t pics of my naked pecs be snuggled away in the pay only section? I pulled out my Mastercard and began a more thorough investigation. After spending several thousand dollars on the top homosexual sites on the Internet I became sure of one thing: There are no nude photos of me on the web. (However, if you’d like to buy some of my early Playgirl pictorials, contact me after the column.)
This isn’t to say that I don’t think these sorts of voyeur cams aren’t a problem. Clearly if America’s athletes are too busy worrying about whether they may be the next Jeff Stryker, they can’t concentrate on more important things like sacking quarterbacks or date raping cheerleaders. And it’s definitely troubling how quickly the cottage industry of digital voyeurism has grown on the web.
Interestingly, that’s a big part of what I like about the Internet. It exposes us for who we really are. The blindsiding success of pornography on the web let's us know that we are a nation of pervs. The advent of voyeurcam-ism exposes us as a nation of Peeping Toms. When we surf the web, we embrace a mob mentality, masking ourselves in the anonymity of the experience. With all the recent hullabaloo surrounding computers containing hardcoded ID numbers that can be matched to people’s names you have to wonder what people are more afraid of: having their shopping habits deemed open season by e-marketeers, or their nightly porn binges becoming the source of amusement for some 17 year old hacker. (Wouldn’t it be great if you found out your high school principal was a frequent visitor to youngandjuicy.com?)
What makes things more interesting is the fact that while there are plenty of people who like to peep on the web, there are also plenty of people who like to be peeped at. How else can you explain the torrent of authorized-voyeurism sites, such as the infamous jennicam.com, where site owners invite you watch their daily activities such as playing on the computer, folding socks or walking around naked. Some do it for art, others for commerce, but it’s another curve ball thrown at us by the world wide web.
You have to wonder where this is all going. Will parents arrive at work, log-on and check the videostream to see if their kids are doing their homework? Will swinging singles start offering downloadable infomercials promoting their "assets?" Will we find ourselves in a world where every pen, every phone, every doorknob is a potential camera, broadcasting us above Times Square? I’m certainly no Neo-Luddite, but even I become fearful if these devices are used too freely. Or if the iron hand of government curtails things too forcefully. I certainly don’t have any answers (as usual) but cannot help to sit and ponder, with an Asimovesque gleam in my eye, about this strange new world.
Wil Forbis is a well known international playboy who lives a fast paced life attending chic parties, performing feats of derring-do and making love to the world's most beautiful women. Together with his partner, Scrotum-Boy, he is making the world safe for democracy. Email - acidlogic@hotmail.com
Visit Wil's web log, The Wil Forbis Blog, and receive complete enlightenment.